Breath of Fresh Air

We have had a great summer so far! No, we haven’t been to any exotic faraway vacation spots, we haven’t done any roller coasters or even water parks. In fact, most of the time we have just spent at home playing with the garden hose and riding bikes (the kids, that is). And it has been delightful!

We have been thinking a bit recently about the difference between true delight and momentary laughter. Both are good. But one lasts longer than the other. I like to give the kids one “laugh a day,” some funny video I’ve found or a really corny joke; and those little snippets come up over and over again around the table, part of our “family album of stupid things no one else will understand.” I love that. But the delightful moments are different. These require a little more thought and sacrifice. The payback is better though. Hopefully these are things they will be talking about 20 years from now, “Hey, remember that time when Papa played freeze tag with us on the playground?” Truly delightful plans may mean your to-do list gets laid by the wayside. The house may be a mess. That Richard Scarry book plopped in my lap…again? That ice cream treat may be a little out of the budget. But if you count the cost…you will most likely miss out on huge reward!

One of our recent delightful ventures was a little weekend trip to Oregon to visit with a friend and meet the rest of her family and church. One of our kids was so excited that he “had now visited two countries—Canada AND Oregon!”. How do you correct such a naive and excited mistake? The kids relished every moment of our little trip, from sleeping in a tent to picking endless buckets of berries, to pancakes with whipped cream (the spray kind!), and S’mores in 95+degree weather. We adults were refreshed with warm hospitality as well: late evenings chatting in the cool outdoor air, a lazy schedule, wisdom gained from veteran parents whose childrearing days are over, live fiddle music by a couple of our kids, and too many more blessings to count.

It is daunting to pack up the kids and go, even for a couple nights. You’re not sure it’s worth the effort. You are tired and think it might be easier to just stay home and take a nap. Travel time is three times longer than it should be (yay for Friday afternoons!). And one of the kids will drink too much water too soon into the trip with nowhere to stop. BUT you bite the bullet and go for it, and what gets stamped on the face of time is priceless. Delighted kids. Friendships kindled. Renewed vigor for the arduous journey of parenting before you. You can’t put a price on it all. But you can relive the memories and revel in that breath, no, gulp of fresh air.
 






Ruffled Baby Bib--Finished!

This is a little project I just finished from a new book called Sweetly Stitched Handmades by Amy Sinibaldi at NanaCompany, one of my favorite blogs in the whole world! I am so glad she finally wrote a book, and word has it that there is another one in the works. Yay!

I really had a hard time getting started on this! I couldn't decide which fabrics to pull together or what embellishments to use. As always, you just have to choose something and go with it. My jumping off point was this little berry cross stitch pattern I found on Pinterest. Cross stitching on linen really tests your eyesight! I liked how it turned out though.

I adore ticking fabric, especially paired with linen. Then I found this eyelet ruffle in my stash. Originally the ruffle and beaded trim were attached, but I took them apart to place them separately. I also used some of that leftover linen from the cross stitch (that linen was actually a pillow sham at one time), and appliqued it as that narrow strip under the beading. It's nice to have the guidelines of the ticking to keep things straight.

Hand quilting is kind of new to me, but this needed a touch of handwork. So I stitched the diamond grid by hand. I also attached the cross stitch patch with hand stitching.

The back is barely peeking through, but it is a soft and absorbent fuzzy chenille. It gives extra body to the bib, as well as a nice cozy feel.

The binding is a stripe that I have used for multiple projects. It was thrifted a long time ago, and I love it, especially cut on the bias. I never measure binding right. This one I would cut narrower next time as it was really hard to fit around the small curve. Usually I cut binding too small, and you can't fix that.

Also, I would enlarge the pattern even more. This bib is for a very small baby, which is OK, just not what I expected. I was just not sure how to get the exact size right on my printer, nor did I want to spend time messing with it at that moment. I vote for downloadable patterns, or a CD, so we don't have to mess with copying and resizing on the printer.

I will get around to reviewing the whole book and posting other completed projects as I continue sewing through the book.  I am doing these as part of a Sweetly Stitched Handmades sew along on Instagram. I love sewing with a virtual community!

On a different note, this song has been running through my mind today. One of my favorites to sing during this laid back time of year. And it evokes good memories of the South where I grew up.

Summertime from Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin

Summertime, and the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high
Oh, your daddy's rich and your ma is good-lookin'
So hush little baby, Don't you cry

One of these mornings you're gonna rise up singing
And you'll spread your wings and you'll take to the sky
But 'til that morning, there ain't nothin' can harm you
With Daddy and Mammy standin' by

Summertime, and the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high
Oh, your daddy's rich and your ma is good-lookin'
So hush little baby, Don't you cry

One of these mornings you're gonna rise up singing
And you'll spread your wings and you'll take to the sky
But 'til that morning, there ain't nothin can harm you
With Daddy and Mammy standin' by

Adventures in English Paper Piecing

What has 6 sides and such an addictive draw that they will cause you to sit for hours cutting, pasting, basting, and stitching them by the score? No, it’s not the mending pile! These little cuties can travel with you wherever you go, take up very little space in your purse, and require only a few supplies to keep you stitching them by the hundreds. And when you put them all together, they make a most beautiful pieces of handwork. I speak of English Paper Pieced Hexagons. A little research on the web reveals that these little shapes have enticed quilters for hundreds of years. One of the most popular quilt blocks made from the beloved “Hexie” is called Grandmother’s Flower Garden, concentric rounds of pieced hexes made into individual “flowers.” I have two such quilts in my own house, one an antique, the other made a few years ago as a gift from Grandma to my daughter. The second one I mention is made from pieces of dresses my mom sewed for me when I was a child. Hexies look great scrappy! No real color theory needs to be involved if that’s not your thing. And they are a great stash-buster. If you don’t want to do a huge project, they are equally adorable appliquéd onto small projects like pouches or handbags, maybe a bookmark or baby bib. Just the right amount of cute.

I love a good story. If any quilt could tell a story, which I believe they all do, the EPP Hexie quilts are full of all kinds of tales simply because they can travel to so many places from beginning to end. I can’t really say that about projects made sitting at my machine with my back hunched over, snipping and clipping in the same position hour after hour. I love that too, just in a different way.

Let me see…if I rifle through my stash of EPP hexagons, I could tell lots of stories. They have traveled so many places: from car to train to plane, from native U.S. soil to Eastern Europe, from countless music lessons to a 3-hour glucose screening (I passed). They even made it through a car crash (so did I, but with more scrapes and bruises then they did). My husband teases me about what I could possibly be doing with the hundreds (in his estimation) of pieces I have cut and basted. I don’t know, but I have surely enjoyed every minute.

I have carried around an EPP kit in my purse for years now. In my little pouch I have a few simple supplies: paper templates (printed off at home), needles, spool of thread, washable glue stick, small scissors, and small scraps of fabric. That’s it! It fits perfectly in my purse so that wherever I go, I have something to keep my hands busy.

I love the slowness of such handwork. No deadline. No stress or rush. Very little picking out mistakes! Just quiet repetitive motion. Calm. Stories woven into cloth in the gentlest of ways. Memories rekindled. Prayers for those we know and love.

Life is hectic and fast-paced. That is not something we can always change. We live in a time when you can even make “quick quilts” if you want to. That is perfect when lack of time calls for such a thing. But here we are in the lazy days of summer. I have relished the slowness summer brings. Time to sit back and enjoy the calm, the last few days before this baby in my belly makes his or her grand entrance into our home. Dreaming about who this person is, holding a newborn again, what kind of gift this new child will be to our family. I think God puts this need to slow down inside every woman at this particular time for a very good reason. We need time to reflect and prepare for this impending life changing event.

That’s what I’ve been doing!