Flea Market Sunday

It's been a long two weeks. The kids spring breaks did not coincide, so I have had kids here non stop for 16 days. Grant is at the relentless questioning age, meaning I never have a moments peace in my head, Jack is every bit a 12 year old, Sammi still hates school...you get the drift.

Dave is forever at work and now he is travelling again. I swear I have just been sitting here for four days just staring. I am SO burnt out. Dave had volunteered to usher at church this morning, But I just could.not. He was out of here by 2 this afternoon so I knew I had more and more days of all the kids (and all the kid errands and problems) ahead of me, so I left them to go to church and went to the flea by myself.

It's still cold and not really the "season" yet, but it was a good morning. (despite being drizzly and chilly!)

Here's a loot shoot.

A box of voile yo-yos. It took me a good thirty minutes to figure out what she was making...

baskets and flowers! I think I will take them apart and just put them in a table topper.

Fabric and feedsacks. The top one is blue, not black.

A $1 bag of notions, including this swell oak tracing wheel which is really lovely.

And a sunflower quilt with yo yo centers.

Sammi joyfully told me there are only 41 days of school left this year (?!?!?!?!) this week. I need to figure out how on earth I am going to deal with summer. Eeek.

Top o' the morning to ya

We have no St Pats shirts this year. And no car currently, so, wear whatever is in the drawer kids.  (The little kids are on steps to even out the height.)

On the plus side quilt

My latest quilt finish is done! This one seemed to drag on and on.

It's a 1930s Nancy Cabot pattern that was really popular again a few years ago. Most people call it x and plus. I believe Nancy Cabot called it a spool block.

I saw an Instagram quilt that used the same color story (I think hers was an art gallery bundle?) so I dug around in my stash and pulled out things that looked close.

Scrappy stash quilts are super fun. It's nice to get this stuff used up!

I came across a scrap of the Nicey Jane stripe while destashing some fabric and it seemed like the perfect binding finish!

On the plus side
Completed March, 2017
Cotton batting
Stash fabrics
Free internet pattern

Snowing and Sewing

Well, after weeks and weeks of warm sunny and spring, it snowed. Just a little. But everything is in bloom and now it's cold for a week at least.  Bummer. The kids enjoyed it though! (You'll note we don't even have snow boots this year. The past few years it has not been worth the expense as we never use them.  We do, however, use rain boots a lot.)

I am still sewing down my list. I needed to replace a Christmas pillow still, so Singing in the rain it is! More paper piecing. I love paper piecing for pillows, but not so much for quilts.

She is super cute!

No flea this week, so Happy Sunday to you!

A school project first

The kids are on spring break, but its on opposing weeks so I have two weeks of them being here. I am trying like mad to make my way through a sewing list I scribbled on a receipt in the car one day. Ha.

First up is the Safe with me paper pieced safety pin from Night crafter. This is a free pattern!  I made this for our pastor at church. (She is the one who introduced me to this movement.)

Sammi is having ALL the struggles with kindy. It really has just been a hot mess of not going well. I've been in contact with the teachers, the principals, a private therapist....it's still not sorted out.  To try and keep her engaged in the classroom she was allowed to do a special research project. (Her reading level is really quite high - end of grade 1 or beginning of grade 2 by now?) Her handwriting not so much. She chose owls.

For a kid who could barely read and couldn't write her name a few months ago this is pretty amazing!

In full bloom

Everything in the yard is blooming already, and it's only march 6!

I think the buds on my tulip tree got frost bite.

Pear trees in bloom.

Leaves on the lilacs.

Hyacinths popping up.

Daffodils starting.

Columbine popping.

Roses leafing out.

Buds starting on the peach tree.

Weirdest winter ever.

Flea Market Sunday

Time for the annual fundraising flea market!  This thing is so huge now.  It easily takes me two hours to walk it and by the end I am dead.

I felt totally overwhelmed by the size this year.  It's been a long time since flea market season at this point, so I am totally out of practice! I just stand there the first two aisles thinking I have no idea which way to even look, what am I looking for again?, oh my hell it's too peoply here! And then I get my groove on.

I bought a lot this year.

Large size fire king delphite tear drop bowl (score!).

Vintage fisher price hospital (score!). I have been looking for this bugger for my collection since Jack was a baby.

Vintage cutter quilt, super super pale yellow. Snails tail maybe? Will be for sale at some point.

HUGE antique pillow covers. With HUGE initials.

Pile o' tin dishes. I have quite of few these scattered all over the place now. I have an idea for them when the easter stuff comes down.

Dave spotted this toy sewing machine, a welcome addition to the collection!

Not a bad haul. :-)

Happy Sunday to you.

Wild things mouse dress for Read Across America

 It's read across America day and the kids at school are dressing up.  Usually my kids opt out of this stuff, but Sammi immediately said she needed to be a mouse. Her favorite book is A Nest for Celeste (which I just grabbed on a whim at a book fair one day.)

It was the perfect chance to finally make her a wild things dress! This has been on my pinterest board (I never go there anymore, do you?) since she was a baby.  This pattern was free in issue 25 of Mollie Makes magazine.

The face was the easy part. I have experience with that.

But putting together a lined dress?  Thank God for youtube. I couldn't have finished this thing without a great youtube video.

The day before I started making it I thrifted a big pile of vintage fabric.  The two on the left are lawn, or voile, and there are yards and yards.  The very left one is the one I lined the dress with and did the details with. Serendipity!

 She also requested a special hair do. Her hair is so, so fine that its hard to work with. It FINALLY occurred to me that I could use bobby pins to help. D'oh!

She's been waiting patiently all week to wear her new dress, here's hoping it holds up to the rigors of kindy!