Sewing With Libby

Over the years I have tried to teach Libby different skills, so that as an adult she would have something to work at, since she has many challenges that keep her from going out into the world on her own. To my disappointment I was having no luck finding anything she would stick at and enjoyed. She might do a little work on a project and then leave it for me to finish or she'd want to do a project but it wound up being me working while she talked to me.

Needless to say I was not all the enthusiastic about making her doll a cloak when she began talking about it. When we were out at Hobby Lobby she went searching for the fabric and trim she wanted for the cloak, while I was busy looking for something else. She picked out her material and I helped her get them cut. She was very excited but I was not.

A day or two later she finally got me to what I thought was going to be "help" her make the cloak. We started out cutting the fabric. I measured and drew the cloak part and she actually cut it out. Then she took the hood pattern she'd had me print off for her and pinned it and cut it out also.

       

O.K. This was more than I thought she'd do. I was surprised when she choose to use black thread. Getting the machine ready for her, I turned the speed down to as slow as it will go. She began to sew each step I told her to do she did. Here she is sewing away with her doll Dazzle.

Well, I was surprised. Next came the hemming. I was for sure she'd stop at this point. It was a 1/4 inch hem which is not easy to iron in place, not to mention it is curved on the bottom and the hood is also curved. Once I showed her how to use the seam gage and to iron in the hem she got right to work.

When the hem was ironed in and pinned she went back to the sewing machine to finish sewing the cloak. It was now complete all except for the sequined trim she wanted to add. Since it was a thick elastic trim, I told her that it would be best for me to sew it on for her. She worked really hard on her dolls new cloak and here is the finished results.

For those of you who know Libby and her dislike of the color red, you may be wondering why she picked red for the cloak. I know I sure was surprised by her choice. Well it seems Dazzle has fire breathing dragon powers and so the red represents fire. I tell you all, I will always try to stay on Dazzle's good side.

A few days after this, I was getting ready to make a friend of hers birthday present. She announced she wanted to make it. Well I knew she'd stuck with the cloak, but I expected her to leave this project after sewing a seam or two. She stuck with the project the whole way through.

 I wish I had gotten a picture of the final project. It was a cloth bag with a large outside pocket, a little button pocket and pencil holder on the left side and a place to hold a drawing pad on the right. It turned out really nice. Maybe Libby is finally showing an interest in sewing. I've tried many times in the past to get her sewing only to have her walk away, but maybe she's ready this time. We shall see.

Chocolate Bomb in the Kitchen

This weekend Hannah came home from camp. She mainly came home so she could work at the local theatre and go to a friends birthday party. No matter what the reason we were all glad to see her. Nathan even made her a cake on Saturday afternoon, so when she got home that evening from the theatre she would have something to eat.

Nathan has become quite the cook. He made this chocolate cake from scratch. First, he made the cake itself (three layers). Next he made two different kinds of frosting. One was cream cheese to go in between the layers and a thin layer on top. Finally, after letting it chill for awhile he frosted the whole cake with chocolate frosting. It was really great.

When making the second frosting, he ran into some difficulties as you can see.

The cocoa went everywhere. Nathan didn't let this stop his progress. He continued to work right along just standing in the chocolate explosion.

By the time he was done he had cocoa powder all over the floor and not just the kitchen he had a question and came looking for me. So we had chocolate foot prints all over the house. He was worried about having ruined my throw rugs with his chocolate footprints.

He did have a friend who tried to help him clean it up. Hannah's dog Truffles loves chocolate. She has torn up bags, broke class containers, and even raided the pantry one night for chocolate. This clean up job was her idea of heaven.

Needless to say she was not happy with me when I put her outside until the mess was cleaned up with a broom and mop.

Sorry I did not get a picture of the cake. After adding the last layer of frosting, Nathan topped it with chocolate chips. Needless to say the cake was delicious and Hannah was happy when she got home to eat her piece.

Next time I'll be sure to remind Nathan that even though it is called the Chocolate Bomb Cake, he does not need to have a chocolate explosion in the kitchen for it to turn out wonderful.

"It's a Jolly Holiday With Mary"?

This week's quilting square has been thoroughly frustrating. I chose to make a Mary Poppins square next for the Broadway Quilt. One reason I chose this is at camp Hannah has been nick named Mary Poppins. The child has an unusual accent that has prompted questions about where she's lived her whole life. She has only ever lived in Mobile, Al and then just three hours away in Northwest Florida, so her accent is not geographical linked. She has been raised by a father from the New Orleans area and a mother from Alabama so she did not pick it up from us either. Many people think she has a British accent, she was even asked to drop the accent when auditioning for her acting final with a Shakespeare Sonnet. After the final, her instructor told the guest graders that she/ had always talked that way as long as he had known her (one year).

I started the square on Monday, since I decided to nap on Sunday afternoon. I was really pleased with how it was turning out. I even was humming some of the songs as I went along. Then I got almost done when I realized that I was not going to have enough of the blue for the sky. Boy was I sick. Oh well, I thought I've got to go to Dothan tomorrow I'll just pick up some more of the fabric while I'm out. No problem. I went to Hobby Lobby only to discover they didn't have anymore of that fabric in stock. Fine, it may take a little longer but I'll just order it online. When I got home I went about looking for it online. Needless to say it was no longer for sale online at any of the fabric dealers in that color. I could get other colors but in the sky/baby blue. Now I had a real problem.

Looking through all my blue fabric from the small remnant scraps to one or more yards of fabric, I found nothing coming even remotely close. Then I found a solid blue that matched the darker blue in the original blue. I thought well maybe it could be her shadow falling over the city as she flies off. Nathan informed me it was too contrasting, but it was the best I had and short of starting completely over I had no other choice. After having to remove  a few of the other blue pieces which required taking out some of the other pieces to get to them, I began to replace and add the new blue to the project. I was NO LONGER singing "It's a Jolly Holiday With Mary". Nathan kept telling me it was weird but I told him we'd let Hannah decide. I have to admit I was no longer happy with this square. Here it is.

The final project is ready for Hannah's choice of use it or scrap it. Anyone else opinion is welcome on whether to keep it or get rid of it. Libby says use it.

Living with Challenges

Today John suggested we go get Hannah and take her out to dinner. I think her dad is missing his "little girl", who has been working away at a summer camp. Many weekends she is busy doing things with the other counselor on their day off and doesn't come home. She is young and even though we miss her, I have encouraged her to enjoy this time, because all too soon she'll have the responsibilities of a home and job. For the average family this would be a great whole family activity but when you live certain disabilities, it is extremely hard to have even a simple family outing as this.

After discussing this, we decided it would be a much more pleasant experience if Noah did not go. Then became the question of who would stay home with him. Since I had talked on the phone with Hannah for over and hour this morning, we decided that I would stay home. One problem solved.

As I was sending the other two to bath and get ready to go new challenges popped up. The other two kids rely so much on me to help them with social issues that they began to worry about eating out without me. Libby was easy to solve, I gave her the responsibility of caring a bag of items Hannah wanted from home to Hannah. This gave her a purpose and made her feel important. She desperately wanted to see her sister so that help a lot also. Two problems solved.

Then I was hit with a third one, Nathan's. Sometimes since he is so high functioning when you get hit with him having trouble it throws you off track. This was a change in his evening routine and I was not going to be there to help him walk through it. I gave him the choice of going to see Hannah or staying home with Noah. Bad idea on my part. Nathan does not fair well with decisions that don't have a definite right or wrong answer. He began to stress out and hit himself in the head. Finally, I got him to take his bath. This solved the problem because once he was dressed to go the decision was made. I did find it funny when I was trying to talk him through this that he said he didn't want to go because he'd be all alone in a social situation. He was going to be with his dad and two sisters! Some days I just have to wonder about his thinking process.

John, Libby and Nathan had a great time visiting with Hannah at dinner and Noah and I had a nice quiet evening at home. This would not have been possible if Noah had went. He does not like places with crowds and noise and he would have been begging to leave within 10 minutes of getting there. I missed not getting to see Hannah, but like I told John I will be picking her up next week and will get to see her then. Also, if I had gone it would have been a lost opportunity for Hannah, Nathan and Libby to spend time just with their dad. 

Life is not easy living with challenges but through them we are given opportunities to grow and develop in ways we never would have without them. Many times I have desperately wished the triplets did not face the issues they do, but without them we would all be very different people who had not been given the opportunity to grow in areas of compassion and acceptance of others.

New Picture Display and Ice Cream Cones

We are always busy around here working on one project or another. Sometimes we will have several going on in different rooms. Maybe this is why it seems sometimes we are not making much progress. Right now we are working on Libby's bench adding the drawers for her clothes, adding drawers to one of our first build's Eddies desk, and of course I've always got something going on in my sewing room. Right now it is too hot to work out in our metal shed we use for woodworking. I went out yesterday to cut a new project for Noah to build, it was not long till I was headed back in to the AC. Not even Noah stayed out there very long sanding, he said it was way to hot for him. That is something since he is usually running around in a heavy jacket.

We did manage to get one item built in the last few weeks and the clips came in Tuesday to finish the new picture display. I haven't decided yet what to make/ buy to put in the middle and I need to get a few more picture developed to finish filling it out. I was thinking of putting an H in the middle and using this to display Hannah's senior pictures.

 

This afternoon Libby had us making more treats for her dolls. Before long her dolls will have more food than us. This time we made ice cream cones. She had quite a few interesting flavors, but they turned out really cute.

 Noah brought us his caution cones to help hold the cones for us as we were working. This made it so much easier and less mess an import fact for sensory challenged kids. As you can see even one of Libby's dolls came to help out with this project.

And if you look closely in the background you can see I have a drop cloth out for painting one of the drawers for Libby's room. Like I said it's never a dual moment around here. We enjoy working on projects together and separately.

Two More Squares Down

I've decided to try and work each Sunday afternoon on Hannah's Broadway Musical Quilt. Maybe this way I will get it done before she graduates from college. 😊 This Sunday I was able to complete two squares. I'd like to say I was working really hard, but to be honest the first square was super easy and took very little time. Since I still had most of the afternoon left I decide I would make another one.

The first square I completed is a musical we have never seen. Hannah and I are familiar with some of the songs. It is from The Book of Mormons.

As you can see this is a very simple pattern with little detail. Since I enjoy paper piecing this one was not as challenging and not as exciting to see come together.

The second one I made is an older but great musical. We have seen it on TV several times and John took the kids to see it one year when one of the local high school put it on. At our house we sing one of the songs frequently. It is Singing in the Rain. Nathan said the guys head look a little flat, but I think it came out pretty well. Fortunately, Hannah has paper pieced and she understands that getting a rounded object round is almost impossible.

I'm not sure how many squares she wants but I am thankful for the site Fandomandstitches.com where people have contributed their patterns for others to use. In the past I have designed a couple of Broadway musical patterns. It is quite a job to take on. I may end up having to try to make The Phantom  of the Opera square again. I attempted this last spring for her another Broadway Musical bag but did not have time to get all the detail correct before our trip to see the play. I keep hoping someone else will design it and share.

Autism and Summer Camp

Last week Nathan went to Pensacola Christian College's Science Summer camp.  He had looked forward to this camp all year. He went last year and had a great time. He became friends with his lab's team captain and they did a lot together in their free time. Nathan has autism. He is extremely high functioning, but socialization is extremely hard for him. I knew he was struggling when waiting to check in a counselor came over to speak to him and he turn away when the guy put his hand out to shake his.

This year with Hannah graduating, it has disrupted his life and he has become more introverted. We have been encouraging him to interact with people but he has been really resistant. I was hoping for him to have some interaction during his free time with someone whom he would become friends with. Unfortunately, this did not happen. I suspected this when he called me several times a day.

He was the captain of his lab team, which I was very proud of him. Captains are picked based on the score they make on a test given the first day. We had to laugh because his team was him and two girls. They must have worked well together, because at the awards ceremony they won first place for their Biology and Chemistry reports. I was excited about how well he managed this, but then them being girls did not lead to any interactions outside of the classroom.

During his evening free time, he did participate some with other kids. He went into the escape box, so he had to work with the others to escape from jail. He really enjoyed this even though they were one clue away from escaping. He also played each night something called Gau Gau Ball, it's similar to dodge ball but crazier. He had to join in with others to play this as well.

Other times during his free time he went putt-putting by himself and he watched the fireworks on Thursday night by himself. This makes me sad to think of him being alone. I want him to make friends and feel like he belongs. In many ways he desires this also, but accomplishing this is very hard for him.

As I am raising the triplet, God is teaching me that it is OK for the kids to be different from others. Nathan was perfectly happy playing putt-putt by himself and watching the fireworks alone. Even though Nathan wants a friend he does not need a bunch of friends. God made Nathan where he was perfectly happy at camp enjoying activities by himself and with a group of people he only talk with while participating in a game.

It did make me glad when his friend called on Saturday and Nathan invited him over to play video games. It was good to hear the boys laughing and talking as they played. They even included Noah when they decided to abandon the video games and play Life. Life with Autism will always be a struggle for Nathan, especially when it comes to social activities. I will try to remember to celebrate even the small successes, as in inviting a friend over to hang out.

Hannah's Visit

It was really nice having Hannah home for the long weekend. Since she started work she has only been home one other time. She seems to be enjoying her job as a camp counselor and she's enjoyed being with the other counselors. I had told her if she wanted to stay and hang out with them on the weekends instead of coming home that was fine. Needless to say that is why we haven't seen her this summer. I'm glad she is having fun.

Since she has finally come home I can share part of her graduation present from me. She asked for a Broadway quilt about a week before graduation, which there was no way I could get it done in that amount of time. I told her I'd have it done at the end of the summer. The summer is almost half over and I've only completed three squares so I better get a move on it.

The first square I made was from the musical Hamilton. Hannah has not seen this one but listens to the music and knows every song by heart just about.

The next one I did was from the musical Wicked I took Hannah to see this one when it came on tour through Birmingham a couple of years ago. It was a really fun trip for just the two of us.

The last one I've gotten done so far is a musical we introduced the kids to when they were small. They all have seen the movie version several times. This is from Fiddler on the Roof. I made this one Sunday while Hannah and I caught up on all that she's been up to this summer.

There are many more squares to be made so I had better get moving on this project or it may be Christmas before I have her graduation present done. Fortunately, Hannah understands that there is only so many hours in a day.

July is here

As we enter July, many of us are finishing up our plans for our 4th of July celebrations. This time of year is not only a great time to have a barbeque with friends or family and watch fireworks, but it is also a time to remember those who have fought for our freedom through the years. With the Revolutionary War on there have been many men and women who have made great sacrifices for us and for other future generations. Even though as American's  we don't necessarily agree on all issues, we all enjoy the freedom we have been given to not have to agree with one another. I am thankful for those who have sacrificed, those who are sacrificing and for the future individuals who will step up to sacrifice to serve and some times unfortunately die to protect my freedom. This year I made myself an American flag shirt to show my patriotic spirit.

I wanted to show our wreath Libby had Hannah and I help her make. She found the wreath on Pinterest and got us to help her make it. She did a great job of keeping Hannah and I working hard on it. She work hard on it also. I'll post a picture of it later, since it's late at night and it's hanging on our door outside. I know I have a picture somewhere but can't find it right now. Tomorrow I'll go snap a picture to share with you all.

Sorry it took me a day or two but here is the picture of our 4th of July wreath Libby had us make.

Here are some of the items we have made for our family shop to show patriotic feelings. First here is an apron that can be worn anytime that one is feeling patriotic. Libby is modeling it for us. I love the fact it is reversible.  This item can be found at:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/537494589/american-flag-apron-for-women-teens?ref=shop_home_active_5

The next item I wanted to share is this fun tote. It is nice and roomy and can be used at the beach or picnic or just for everyday outings. This item can be found at: https://www.etsy.com/listing/472207609/american-flag-tote-bag?ref=shop_home_active_3

Also we have this fun table runner, that would be great in any part of the house. We have one like it for our family room. This item can be found at:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/535363031/patriotic-flag-table-runner?ref=shop_home_active_8

Finally, we also have available this wonderful flag throw quilt. This would make a great gift for any veteran. This is can be found at:

 https://www.etsy.com/listing/538822029/american-flag-with-fireworks-throw-quilt?ref=listing-shop-header-3