Home Improvement

 Something we've had a hard time with since buying our house 15 years ago is the fact that there was no place outside with shade. There were no trees that were large enough to give any. And, on many of the houses built after ours, they did add a covered back patio or porch. So they must have recognized that it was an issue later on.

Unfortunately, though, not on ours. The last few years, it has actually become a bigger issue because  the weather has been coming in our back door some. Initially after moving in, we installed a screen/glass door on the back so I could keep it open while little Rugrat was playing outside and I was working inside. 

The wind in Oklahoma is not kind though. And that poor screen door took a beating every year.  So much so that a few years ago we finally took it off. 

Then we realized that it had been doing something besides get beat up by the wind and rain. It had been keeping the rain (and all the other weather) out of our house. We began to notice water damage to the door frame and trim. That is going to be an issue.

So, a couple of months ago, we decided to look into getting a patio cover. It would be a chunk of change but sooooooo loved and appreciated by both us and the dogs. And now we knew it might save our back door some damage too. Sounds like a good investment.

We were initially told (in August) that it would be November before they could install it due to their work load.  But at the beginning of October, we got the call for them to dig the footings.  They had hoped to get the concrete poured that Friday before the weekend, leaving several days for it to set and cure but the inspector didn't come by to approve it until nearly the end of the next week. So, we had a week there where we skirted around holes that would have definitely resulted in a broken bone if we had stumbled into them. Then, suddenly this week, in a matter of two days we had a cover.

I thought the dogs might be a little freaked at first but they don't even seem to have noticed it. And now we're Oklahoma weather ready -- at least somewhat. My eldest daughter mentioned that if we have to run for the shelter, it will be nice not getting soaked right as we step out the door. So, one more plus.

I'm thinking it will be well worth the expense of adding it.

Simple Things

 I tried my hand at canning some mandarin oranges. Used half pints so they would be in serving sizes.

I think they turned out very pretty.

Gathered in all the tomatoes from the bushes. We have three boxes/flats sitting on our table ripening along with a paper bag full of cherry tomatoes.

But we are moving the ones with a blush piece by piece to this little bowl on the counter to get riper.

I also finished up a fidget mat. This one was a totally random collection of things. I took out my smaller fabric pieces bin to look through. Any piece that was large enough to get a square from, I cut. 

Then, I dumped out some jars of random things and pulled out some lace I had never used and found a random zipper, etc. and I went to town on it.
 

It's got a lot to look at and a lot to play with. Somebody will probably love it. Ha ha. 

Lots of simple little things that make up the rhythm of our days and give us a normal to come back to when the world is running us amok. 

Hoot Hoot

 Chick has become somewhat of a designated sub for my Bunco group. And last Monday was no exception this month. 

So off we went. 

At the end, prizes were given out. Once everything was done, a friend who was sitting next to me leaned over and whispered something. She had received a prize but, unfortunately, it had some scented things. She whispered that her husband was highly allergic and told me to meet her outside for a hand-off because she couldn't take them home.

As it happens, Chick is a big fan of candles. So she went outside to put them in the car while I helped clean up.

As sweet as it was of her to think of us, I felt bad that she didn't have her prizes anymore. 

I knew that she liked to wear aprons while cooking though. And I just happened to have some fall fabric on hand. So, I thought I might make her a fall apron just for kicks. I used a preprinted pattern I had from my home economics class in junior high. We won't talk about how old it was but you can guess. But I followed the directions here. 

I wanted to make the ties long enough to wrap around the waist and tie in front. As it turned out, I had just enough fabric to do that.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture before Chick carried it off and gave it to her so I can't share how cute it turned out.

There were several things she passed along so I wanted to add one other thing. I came across this little fella and decided to make one for her as a fall decoration. You can find the free pattern here.

Again, I didn't grab a picture before he got carried off but then I decided to make one for me too.

I think mine turned out pretty cute. 

Rugrat has already asked a couple of times about making one for her as well. I might try  to make a larger one for her but I haven't decided yet.

The hardest part of making these is getting the bottom on. You have to put a little bag of whatever you are weighting it with (rice, in my case) and then hot gluing the bottom on.

But, seriously, if that's the hardest part, I'm up for it. I would like to get a fat quarter bundle that coordinates so I could make three different ones that all either share a back or tummy fabric to set out. But I haven't yet done that.

Let me know if you decide to make one. I'd love to see yours.

Another Soft Toy

 I attended one of the many baby showers we will be having in the next few months at our congregation last Sunday. In this case, it was for the mom of one of my Sunday school students.

Since I teach the four-year-olds, there is going to be somewhat of a gap between the brothers. And it occurred to me that he might be feeling a little left out of everything. Not to mention that his life was going through a lot of changes that might be hard for him. So I kind of wanted to get him a little gift.

One of the things I knew about this little man is that he is a BIG fan of trash trucks.

Mmm hmm. Trash trucks. He loves them! In fact, his mom told me that his grandmother is making him some trash truck sheets to encourage his move from the toddler bed to a regular sized one (so they can use the crib mattress for the new baby).

So "love" is not an understatement. 

I had gotten a typical gift for the baby but I first thought to find a toy trash truck for my student. Guess what. Not so easy to do as it turns out. Especially with a time crunch as I had left myself.

But then I remembered my little partial role of printable fabric (left over from the making of a certain weatherman doll). I looked up a little clipart of a trash truck and, without too much fussing, was able to print one that looked pretty good. I reversed the image and printed another.

Then I put 'em together, front and back.

It actually turned out a lot cuter than I expected. 

I was still a little afraid it might be kind of silly so I handed it off to Mom after service that morning.

I was informed at the shower later that he LOVED it! It apparently went to lunch with him and was carried around until she had to come to the shower. She thinks it may become his soft toy for preschool too.

It made me happy I went to the little bit of trouble it took to make it. And I'm also glad he didn't think it was silly. :)

Halloween Hot Pad

 I mentioned that I practiced using my new free motion foot and ruler on a piece of Halloween fabric to make another oversized hot pad with. 

You can see the quilting in this closeup. I thought it looked really good.

The practice was so I could get the hang of it before trying to quilt the baby blanket I was making.

Which I then realized was much too large to do that with on my little machine setup. And gave up on.

But, once I got the baby gift bundle done, I came back to my new hot pad to finish it up. That began with trimming the edges nice and straight for binding it.

Then, I just needed to add a binding. I made that out of some other Halloween fabric I had. I think it turned out quite cute.

These were both yard cuts I got from the clearance aisle at Walmart after Halloween one year for a couple of dollars each. Not too shabby, huh.

So, my baby blanket didn't turn out quite like I was hoping for.

However, I still got a cute little Halloween hot pad out of it. And how timely! The weather is just beginning to change.

A Baby Gift

 Our congregation has gotten larger in the last few years. And one way we can tell is the nine (count 'em, 9) babies that are due in the next few months.

One of the staff suggested that our sewing ministry might start making a gift for each new baby. It was a project we could get on board with. So we were each assigned to make a bundle of  two or three things to give from the sewing ministry.

Mission accepted.

The most obvious gift was a baby blanket. However, I am not a quilter. I stink at it. So I was trying to think up some other things.

I pulled out this little nursery rhyme fabric I had and went to work. The fabric was perfect because all but one of the new babies are boys. I almost feel sorry for the one little girl. Ha.

First up was these sweet burp cloths. I made one side of the pretty little fabric and one side out of diaper cloth. The diaper cloth should be more absorbent than the cotton would be. I used the pattern for these found here. They are a little different than a pattern I already had but I think they turned out quite well.

Next up was a bib. I also used the pattern for the same site found here. I decided to use a panel of the diaper cloth on it as well just for absorbency again. I treated it like an applique and just used a zigzag stitch around it.

With a little snap up top, I think it is quite cute. I would have liked it better without the panel, I think, but I wanted it to be useful and I think it probably needed that.

I still had a large enough piece to make a blanket, but I wasn't sure I could handle it. However, I recently got a free motion foot and ruler for my sewing machine so I thought I might give it a go. 

I decided to try it out on another oversized hot pad using some Halloween fabric I had. I loved the way it looked. But once I started doing it on the blanket, I realized why so many of the videos using it that I've seen have sewing machine tables rather than just a portable machine. Suffice to say, an oversized hot pad is still a lot smaller and easier to handle than a baby blanket. 

Fortunately,  I had only done one long line of it so I could chop that off and still have enough for a baby blanket. My mom suggested I make the sandwich and then just get another lady in the sewing ministry to quilt for me (my thought was preferably one who owned a long arm machine for quilting). 

But, as I made the quilt sandwich and began to even off the edges, it occurred to me that I had some yellow flannel. I could probably just have the fabric on one side and put flannel on the other for a super soft but cute receiving blanket of sorts. It would just be a little larger -- perfect, in my mind, for laying on the floor for baby to work those tummy muscles or sleep on at Grandma's. Sounds like a plan to me.

 I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. It's also pretty light, which will be nice for the babies born in the next few months here. I even got a little fancy and used one of my decorative topstitches (my simple little machine has like 3 total, lol). 

So, there was my bundle. But I had one other thing I wanted to add. It only took a scrap of fabric to make but they are so useful.

It's a pacifier clip. Or you can use it for keeping baby's favorite toy attached too. These are incredibly easy to make! And so very helpful! I found the pattern here. The suspender clips are inexpensive and easy to find. And it can be literally made from scrap fabric in a snap.

 

I really wanted to make a bag to hold it all together too. I still had the strip of quilted blanket I had cut off so I thought I might do something with that. Once I started putting it together I realized it needed a different bottom though because the yellow strip just wasn't wide enough to still show without something extra. I ended up with a tote bag of sorts.

This did not work out at all. It was quite wonky. The bottom wanted to stay up but not the top. And despite using the same measurements, I ended up with a lining that was short. I think I may have just been done with it at that point. I probably should have taken a break. 

But I had a timeline. Unfortunately, what I didn't have was more fabric. I was down to bits and pieces at this point. What to do now?

I went back to my trusty drawstring bag. But I knew if I wanted everything matchy matchy, I would have to figure out how to do that. Looking over some pictures on the internet gave me the idea to just make some blocks and alternate them with the solid cream color I had used on the tote. So I went to work.

It isn't my best drawstring bag ever. But I don't know that the mom will even keep it or use it either. I didn't have enough to cover the back so I just used a solid cream color panel for it. It still turned out alright even if I was thoroughly annoyed with the whole thing by the end.

And, for kicks, I made a cutesy little one of my tags to go on it telling what was inside. 

I may have to work on some of these to see if I can get better at making them. I really want to be better at it.

It's That Time Again

 Only one more of these first day photos to go. Time moves so quickly!