Flannel Pajamas and Quilting

There aren't as many clothes patterns for boys as there are for girls, so I don't sew for the boys very often. I sew costumes for them, so far Robin Hood and simple surcoats. (I can't believe I don't have any pictures of them in their Robin Hood costumes on my blog; I'll have to look into that.)

One thing I like making for the boys is pajamas, especially nice warm flannel ones for the winter. I wonder if my in-laws would recognize these flannels that used to be button down shirts? :)

Edmund is always interested in what I make and gives me his opinion on all the things I turn out. Of course he likes it when what I am sewing is for him.

So there is one sewing project done. I have finished most of my mending pile as well. I still have a few things left in that pile, but I have moved on to some new projects that I really want to get done before the baby is born.

Here is the beginnings of one of the new projects. 64 blocks (composed of 9 3" squares of fabric each) to be made into a new, larger picnic blanket. As of the writing of this post I have pieced about half of the blocks. Now to do the rest and then join them all together and find a good backing.

I love to quilt. It is kind of addicting for me. :)

Speaking of quilts, did I ever show you the one that I made with my mother and sisters-in-law for a friend's wedding?This Log Cabin quilt is between a typical king and queen size. We used mostly fabric from our scrap box (we always save every bit of fabric from other sewing projects for quilting). It was so much fun to compare fabrics and figure out the diamond pattern.

I quilted it on my sewing machine.

Then I tried my hand at embroidery. On top, the couple's monogram (AHR) and wedding year. On the back is our signature.

Not Much, But Life

Today wasn't our best day for sure.

Thankfully the sun was shining this morning. After a grey weekend the sun was a good boost. The usual Monday housework went pretty well. But then school time came.

The word "pat" proved to be A Very Hard Word To Read. Edmund would read it correctly, then get stuck on saying "pap". It was very frustrating, but I knew that he could read the word properly if he actually took the time to think, instead of just saying the first thing that came to mind. In the end I had to feed the other boys lunch and take them outside to play, leaving Edmund to sit and clear his mind.

Once that hurdle was past the day flowed more smoothly, though right about that time the younger boys started getting really cranky, but then, thank goodness, it was nap time.

I took time to hang the laundry outside today. It smelled so lovely when I brought it in; I really need to hang the laundry more. Partly because of the rain I haven't hung the laundry out as much I usually do in the spring.

My sewing projects are coming along well. I won't bother you with all the mending details, but I should be able to get up some pictures of the new things I am making. I will be making a quilt (and maybe curtains) for Miss Cook's nursery, and the fabric for that came in the mail the other day, so now I am trying to make a final decision on what the quilt will look like. I won't start that project until all the mending is done. I find quilting to be rather addictive, so I need to get the less fun stuff out of the way first. :)

And a couple random pictures from the weekend.

Nathaniel...speed reading? He is our literary child. We had friends over on Friday, and Nathaniel and their little girl brought our entire collection of children's books into the kitchen and read them all while we played games.

We went to a Renaissance Faire near St. Louis on Saturday. This is one of the only pictures I took. A fire-dancer. She was pretty good, nothing fancy, but then I don't know how long she has been doing this. Besides this two ended pole she also has some torched chains and a little torch that she did fire eating with. Edmund was quite fascinated.

Summer Activities

As with my other pregnancies I have hit that point where I feel the need to finish my half done projects before the baby comes. Sewing projects are the main thing on my list. But there are also a lot of things that still need to be done in the basement that I would like to do before Miss Cook comes. It would be nice to get the schoolroom completed and ready for the new school year, as well as getting the bathroom down there up and running.

For now, I have started on my sewing projects. There are many, ranging from mending to new projects and as I sat and looked at my boxes I started feeling overwhelmed. So I closed all but one box, and from that one box, pulled out the first thing and finished it. Now I have gone through an entire box, fixing what I could and making a list of necessaries for the other things. Some of the projects were so easy and quick that it is ridiculous that I took so long to do them.

One of these was Jeremiah's name sampler. I have made these for the other boys, always finishing them up while pregnant with the next child. After I finished Nathaniel's I started Jeremiah's and had it almost done before he was born. Then I never picked it up again. Well, I finished it the other day, and when I said it was almost done I meant it. It took me all of maybe four hours spread over a few days to finish it. Wouldn't it have been nice to have finished it back when Jeremiah was a newborn?

Here it is: finished, washed, and framed.

And a close-up.

It would be nice to get Miss Cook's done before she comes, but I do think I should finish all the other half done projects I have going first. We will see what happens.

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On another note. We have the pool out and the boys have been in it pretty much every day for the last week and a half. Some of the days were really too cold and they didn't last long, but Sunday and yesterday they were in it a lot.

They all love the water, but of the three fish this one is the fishiest:

Neither of the other boys liked the pool much at this age, but Jeremiah loves it! It doesn't matter how cold it is. In fact, last month when we went to the river for a picnic Jeremiah actually crawled right into the river. Not only is the river always rather cold, but below the spring (where we were) it is ICY!!! But Jeremiah didn't care. As you can see, he loves to splash!

While Jeremiah sat down right away, it took Edmund a little while to get acclimated.

But it didn't take him too long. Oh, the life jacket? I don't know, maybe he was afraid he would be out of his depth. :)

Nathaniel was sleeping when some of these pictures where taken, otherwise he would have been in there more, too.

The Bite of the Sewing Bug

It seems like I end up sewing more during the winter than the rest of the year. At least that is how last winter was. Before Christmas I was making gifts, then afterwards I had several things that I wanted to get out of the way before Jeremiah was born.

I just got my first "load" of fabric for this winter's sewing delights. Be prepared for pictures of sewing projects over the next few months.

For now I will show off my babies and see if you can tell the three apart.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

These pictures are the boys in order, as you may have guessed. Jeremiah is 7 months and the other two are about 5 months. He kicked his feet when I was taking the picture, which adds to how much bigger he looks than the others.

Busy Days

This pretty little Crocus popped its head out the other day to tell me that spring is around the corner, even though we are still having many cold days.

I have decided that I don't mind the cold, as long as it is sunny outside.

We have a wood furnace that we have used most of the winter (we took a break from using it in February), that is really nice, when we make sure to keep the fire burning good and hot. We try to be frugal when it comes to heating our house, but I am definitely enjoying having a warmer house! I have a hard time being motivated to get up and do stuff when I am cold, and being pregnant isn't helping either, so the warm house and sunshine are essential to a productive day.

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A few Sundays ago on the way to church we saw one of these beautiful landscape pieces. Edmund asked, "Mama, what's that?" (A classic three-year-old question.) I responded with a somewhat vague, "Oh, that's a tower of some nature." His deduction -- a nature tower! Which is what he continued to call them for the next week or two; until Jaired decided that his son needed to be properly educated and told him that, "Mama made a mistake, those are actually cell phone towers." I think that Edmund is getting it sorted out. he still calls them nature towers if he forgets, but he has graciously accepted the fact that I had misinformed him.

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One of my pre-baby goals was to finish all of my (several) sewing projects. And I am happy to say that I have succeeded.
Along with outfits for myself, I have been making some things for my SIL Chava, like the dress above.
In the future I hope to talk more about my sewing, for those who might be interested to see what patterns I use, how I get through the hard parts, etc. This dress though, I had no particular pattern for. Chava has had "this" dress for awhile, but it needed to be altered, so I took the leftover fabric from when it was made and redid the bodice using princess seams. I also turned the gathered skirt into an A-line, to give it a better figure. The sash was just for fun because I had so much of the contrasting fabric left after altering the skirt, but it really adds a lot to the dress.

Colds, Walking Babies, Sewing...My October so Far

Autumn came in earnest right at the beginning of October. We have had at least as many rainy days as sunny, if not more, so far this month and the weather has been COLD. We haven't started using our heater yet, so the boys and I pull on the layers to stay warm during the day. Every evening we gather in the sitting room after dinner to enjoy a warm fire. You may wonder why I don't have a fire going all day. The main reason is that our sitting room is not the best for "living" in (that's why I don't call it a living room). We have a couple of couches, end tables, and some other furniture in the room, but no tables where I can sit and work.

We went through our first run of sickness last week. Jaired was the worst, having a fever for a few days. Edmund got away with one rotten day when he also had a fever. Nathaniel and I have both only had colds, though mine was accompanied by a splitting headache.

Besides being cold and sick I have been sewing quilts for the boys which is part of a larger project that Jaired and I are working on for the boys' Christmas present. Here is a peek at the quilts.
Nathaniel is learning how to walk, which is so much fun. He does whether or not we are watching him, but if he does notice us watching he gives the most adorable smile. Edmund is excited about it, too. Whenever he sees Nathaniel taking off he says, "look, Mama, Nathaniel do it by self!" I have tried to tell Edmund that Nathaniel will soon be running around after him, but I am not sure Edmund believes me. He always points out that he is fast or that Nathaniel crawls.

Hooded Bath Towels

Little children and hooded bath towels seem to go together. It is so cute to see those baby faces peering out of an "elfish" hood. And children love them! They are one of those things one puts on their baby registry; like I did. Unfortunately, the hooded towel I got was a tiny, polyester thing (not the one I put on my registry). Just big enough and absorbent enough for a newborn, but not much good for a bigger baby. I was disappointed to not have something that my children could use even when they got to be toddlers.

I occasionally tossed around ideas for making my own hooded towel, but never came up with anything. Recently, however, I found just the thing! I got this off of a blog, but can't remember which one, so am unable to give credit where credit is due.

This is really easy to make; all you need is a bath towel and a hand towel. Cut the hand towel in half. Fold the cut side of the towel in half and sew, then open out the hood and sew the seam allowance to one side. Sew the hemmed edge of the hand towel to one of the sides of the bath towel. That's it! You're done!

I made two of these using towels I already had, so it didn't cost me anything. And there was no waste.

Here is Edmund's back. Do you see how long the towel is? He will be able to use this for several years.

Knights and their Surcoats

Surcoat, d.:
A garment worn over medieval armor, often embroidered with heraldic arms. (dictionary.com)

Jaired's brother, Justice, loves to play in the woods, usually acting out some battle or other that he has read about. (He is usually the English, I think.) For Christmas, Jaired had me make Justice a surcoat, black with a red lion crest. He also got Ellie to make a matching flag. As an additional surprise for the guys, Chava made surcoats for Edmund, a blue falcon, and Jaired, a blue dragon, and a bib for Nathaniel, a red cross. Jaired and Justice were thrilled and immediately went out the day after Christmas to fight the Frenchies and vanquish a couple of dragons.


Here they are in all their splendor. You might not be able to see it, but Edmund is holding one of Jaired's small swords. I know you can hardly see Nathaniel's crest, but this is the best picture we have, since the little guys weren't cooperating.