Annika and a long over due UFO

I'm sorry. I haven't been posting, but I have been sewing. I can either sew these days or blog and I've chosen sewing. I'm working hard at my little quilt when I have the chance and sewing mostly for the girls.

I had the fun opportunity to test a pattern for Dawn at Olabelhe. She designs sweet, old-fashioned dresses for little girls. I tested the Annika pattern for her, a double skirted dress with 3/4 sleeves and a fully lined bodice. Here are the pictures:


(Click on the picture to see a larger version.)





This pattern is one to consider if you love sewing for little girls. The pattern instructions are clear, with lots of pictures to help you along. There are good details in the sewing. Some hand stitching is required and lots of hand pleating make for a finished work of art. There are many ways to dress up this adorable little outfit. I went rather plain as the fabric was quite busy, but I'm thinking of making it again this spring for an Easter outfit using a pretty print over eyelet and embellishing with ribbons. I think Sprite will be pleased.

In addition to the Annika, I finally finished a UFO that has been sitting in my basket since January -- another g-tube dress for the Divine Miss. This one is green knit over a brown baby whale corduroy with an apple applique. I made yellow leggings to go with it (ran out of the green.) More pictures:






Next up is a top for me -- I need clothes for work!

The princess and the nerd

Always the one to wait until the last minute, we got Halloween costumes ready for school tomorrow. Sprite will go as a Barbie princess, thanks to a $5 at the dollar store. I will post pics of the three of them on Saturday.



The Divine Miss as the Purple Princess.

The challenge with DM's costume was that she is always sitting, either in a wheelchair or another chair. I needed something simple, that could be put on over her clothes and something that would be comfortable. Enter the princess apron. I found a piece of silky violet polyester in my stash that had a gold pattern and a border print on the selvages. I cute the piece in half, using part as a waistband.



I used my serger to hem all the raw edges, then sewed the two pieces so that they would layer one over the other to the waist band. I made a casing in the waist band, slipped a piece of one inch elastic through the casing and sewed the ends of the elastic down. I left about 4 inches of elastic on either end of the apron. I sewed hook and loop to the ends so that the skirt could be slipped around DM and fastened easily.

Next up was the cape. I had another piece of purple costume satin in my stash. I cut a circle from the piece, opened it up and cut another circle for the neckline. Again, used my serger to hem the raw edges. I used FOE to bind the neckline and left it a bit long and put a snap in to fasten it.

Finally, the crown is made from a crown that had broken. As the original crown would have fallen off her head, I used another bit of elastic to make it into a headband.



Coolboy decided he wanted to be a nerd... "like my Dad!". I think he makes a rather good one. He was so funny about it all and has told the whole school what he plans to be for Halloween. His dad offered the IBM cap, computer board tie, pens, pocket protector and glasses frames for the cause. Cool boy plans to buy a calculator at the school store to complete the outfit.



Happy Halloween!

Kitchen Update Phase III - Painting

Phase I and II

We started on the next phase of our kitchen update: painting. This was probably the most fun so far, due to the help we had and just watching a clean, pretty kitchen emerge. I won't bore you with the work in progress pictures, but you can find them on my PictureTrail account under New House if you want to see them.


(Click on these pictures to see larger versions.)

The view from the front door -- Ignore the goofy kids on the couch and the vacuum cleaner.



From the entry to the kitchen.



Side counter shot -- we painted the trim that had been left just as wood to match the rest of the trim in the house. This was the original spot for the refrigerator. We think that this was the wall that was cut down to make the house more open. It's hard to see, but the counters on either side of the stove don't match. There are also holes in the upper cabinets where the cabinets we removed were originally attached.




The work corner. I love how fresh and clean it all is now.





This corner isn't quite done yet -- there was a hole in the wall just on the other side of the buffet. Dh filled it in and it isn't quite dry yet. Once it is, we can sand it down and finish that last bit of painting.



We got lucky and found the leftover trim paint in the garage, so I repainted all the baseboards white.



Since the hallway was also green, but a different shade than the one I picked for the kitchen, we also repainted the one wall. The other walls of the hall are cream. No, I don't get it either.



The bad thing about painting one room is that you notice how bad the rest of the house looks. I didn't paint the trim in the hall because I wasn't ready to repaint the entire hall. I'll do that later.

A couple of the people who helped make it all possible:



Cool Boy, who assisted with sanding down the paint build-up after we removed the wallpaper from where the cabinets had been.


And sister-in-law Heather came up to help us paint as well. She did most of the painting -- it looks fabulous!

A note about the paint. We painted the kitchen with a no VOC paint from FreshAire. The color is Arbor Vine. We elected to spend the extra money on this paint due to the Divine Miss's seizures and sensitivity to smells. It turned out to be a great choice. The color was excellent. Their tints are pre-measured and bagged so that the paint person at the store just drops the bag into the can and it dissolves in the paint as the can is shaken. Every can was exactly the same shade.

There was some odor as we started painting the larger walls -- almost none as she started doing the first trimming. DM was a little fussy, but only because she got bored during the long day, not due to the smell. Dh didn't notice it at all and he almost always gets a headache while painting.

The color went on smoothly and the coverage was excellent. We bought three gallons figuring it would take three coats to cover that blue. It took only two coats and I still have 1 1/2 gallons left. I'll use that to paint the hallway and the ducky bathroom later this year. Expensive yet, but worth it and I would highly recommend the brand.

Thanks to the tree situation, the new floor won't be happening for a while. But I will start looking for new curtains. I'm going to purchse lined drapes for the sliding glass door to help block some of the cold air. and matching curtains for the window over the sink. I'm thinking about using a darker green or green print.

We also want to replace the white ceiling fans in both the kitchen and living-room with something that will coordinate with the new lights and replace the sliding glass door with something a little more up-to-date and energy efficient. Finally, we want to build an island workspace so that more than one of us can cook at a time. That will all happen over time, but so far, I'm tickled with the look of my "new" kitchen.

Thanks for letting me share.

Not Strong Enough to Bend

(with apologies to Tanya Tucker)





There was a tree, out in the front yard
That Thursday morn was broken by the wind.
And the reason it's not standing,
It was not strong enough to bend.



For fifteen years, that tree was growing
And blooming with little flowers in the wind.
But Bradford Pears, they don't last forever...
They aren't strong enough to bend.





When it got old and its branch hung down
The wind picked up and you could hear a little crack
It fell across the yard with a mighty snap
Now its sawdust is piled in a neat little stack,
Its sawdust is piled in neat little stack.






We'll plant a tree out in our front yard
To replace the one that was taken by the wind.
But we won't plant a Bradford Pear tree...
They're not strong enough to bend.

Updating my Kitchen -- Wanna see?

We've lived here a year and are finally starting to make the house ours. We're starting with the kitchen as certain elements of the original arrangement have been driving me nuts. The house has a vaulted ceiling going from the living room to the kitchen and originally had a full 8 foot wall between the two rooms. Some time during the house's life time (about 15 years), someone cut down about half the wall and moved the refridgerator and three upper cabinets (but not the lower ones) to the corner opposite the sink and stove. It has been most inconvenient, not to mention painful as dh, CoolBoy and I have all whacked our heads on a corner of a cabinet.


(Click on the photos to see bigger pictures.)

The china hutch in this picture is standing where the fridge stood. You can see that there are upper cabinets, but no lower ones.



These are the original light fixtures which are made up of three little spot lights that didn't shine anywhere I wanted them. They are very cheap and not very efficient.



The changes first occurred with moving the fridge to the other side of the room, close to the cabinets. This involved hiring a plumber to track down and move the ice maker water line which was going from the corner of the house opposite the kitchen. Thankfully, the deteriorating line didn't break because the ceiling is completely finished with drywall. The plumber put at least a half dozen little holes in the ceiling to find the line. He patched them (mostly, forgot one but he's coming back.)

Next, we removed the odd upper cabinets. Demolition fun!



Gotta love that old wallpaper!



Yucky floor. The vinyl was laid crooked and someone tried to cover that up by painting the sub floor white.



Improved corner:



Other corner



Rest of the kitchen. Observe the man emptying the dishwasher.



New lights -- we put these up today without a single argument. Aren't they pretty?
Really changes the look of not just the room but the whole feel of the house as you walk in the door. As everything is open, you see the kitchen as you walk in the front door, so the chandelier is a focal point. The plan is to change the fans to match the new lights.



This is the pendant light over the sink.



Close-up of the chandelier:



DH and I have spent the afternoon putting up lights and rearranging drawers and cabinets. We have a couple more cabinets to clean up, but mostly we are done.



Next weekend we are painting the kitchen. Our color is "Arbor Vine", a light green that will be a bit lighter than the current blue, but more soft. After that, all that is left is to order the floor which is still under discussion and choosing new curtains.

Thanks for looking!

Monday Report - Sew4Kids

Well, it's Monday on the East coast, anyway.

I put aside quilting for a while to work on The Divine Miss's fall/winter wardrobe. I had finished a pair of pants, two tops and a pair of leggings earlier. Here is one top and the leggings:



The top is the Anenome Stripes tunic from the Children's Fall 2009 issue of Ottobre. The leggings are from Winter 2004. I have the skirt intended to go with the tunic cut out, but not sewn up yet. All fabrics are from Chez Ami. These are both European size 122.

I finished this sweet cat g-tube dress today with matching shorts. Fabric is from somehere -- methinks Sewzannes Fabrics.
The pattern is a modified version of Kwik Sew 2708 -- I really need to find 2709 to have on hand for the next few years. This is a size six. Shorts are from Ottobre Spring 2007.





You can see that I'm already using my new labels. I finally realized that basting them onto the back neck seam allowance before I bind the neck makes for a much prettier, more professional looking label. I'm very excited about using these.

The rest of my weekend was taken up by caring for sick kids (DM has the flu, Sprite has been battling strep and probably the flu as well) and working on our kitchen. We have decided to put some time and money into refreshing the decor as well as making it more convenient to work in the kitchen. More on this in tomorrow's post.

First quilt top

I burned my finger on the iron, so no commentary as I can't type. But here are pictures of my first completed quilt top.



The colors are not right on the screen -- they are lighter and softer, but this shows the quilt overall.