Frogs, Pillows, Photo Shoots and a Lazy Sunday - Keeping my promise to play with kids for at least 2 hours each day

Am going to try and blog a bit more often . . .

Have gotten up early with Ellie the last few days and we have been busy. She helped me take some photos of the pillows I finished last night. They are both for swaps. The first one is paper pieced and has lots of curves. Not something I would try without a bit of a push. When I saw my partner's mosaic, I ordered Alex Anderson's book right away and set to give it a try. I was surprised at how I got the hang of it, once I actually started to sew.

Got a bit carried away with the hand stitching. One of those things that once you start you just can't stop. She asked for colors of the sea, I think these are perfect! I will ship it to it's new home soon!

I am having a big love affair with Japanese test fabrics from Suzeko Koseki. Paired with the scrappy Japanese X&+ blocks I am in total love. I started this pillow before the swap partner names were handed out. It doesn't fit any of the requirements my partner mentioned or does it resemble anything in the mosaic she did, which will teach me to jump the gun! But it is really a happy accident, because I worked on them both in stages and will have to do that will all pillow making from now on. Making a second, really doesn't take double the time. You are in the zone and a pillow is the perfect project. Piece one or add an hour and piece another. Quilt one or quilt two, you have the machine out and ready! Make one back panel with a zipper, why not do a second. It was really a time saver!

Red, black, aqua, grey and cream . . . a favorite combo for me for sure! I love binding pillows and the touch of red and white stripe makes it perfect to me.

Since Leah had on a matching dress, I couldn't resist getting a shot of her.

While I was taking photos of pillows, Ellie set up her dolls and busted out the Hello Kitty camera. I have been making a point of sitting down with her and playing dolls, games, etc each day. We had a blast dressing dolls, taking photos and giggling all morning.

We got this wonderful outfit, Devout Dolls, and had to put it on Casper. She is such a cute Brownie and now is ready for Halloween.

Sam woke up and it started frog fest. The two of them started small, by catching one and it lead to 12 captured and relocated frogs. They took their work seriously and soon climbed into the window well to rescue the frogs stuck between the window and screen.

Hope you are having a great day. We are enjoying this fall weather and having lots of fun!

Bl♥ved - Stars and Stripes 34/365

Bl♥ved - Stars and Stripes 34/365, originally uploaded by threedancingmagpies.

Have a wonderful 4th of July!

Pillow Talk Swap 5 . . . aka "the quickie"

Pillow Talk Swap 5 . . . aka "the quickie", originally uploaded by threedancingmagpies.

Here is the mosaic for round five. I also thought it might be helpful for you to see my thoughts around this swap since the beginning. I still love all the pillows in old mosaics, but those fav'd photos are hidden in my crazy amount of things I favorite right now!

Here are some old related posts:

Mosaics made for rounds 1-4

and a very random, hard to read yet packed with details on color where pillows might live in our house!

Here are the pillows I have sent in rounds 1-4

Here are the pillows I received for rounds 1-4

Can you believe all the great pillows that have been sent and received in this swap? Every time I look at the flickr pool, I just am in awe. I find myself looking at the four I have received and holding them close . . . way to much to be normal! This is such a great swap and I want to thank Kelly and her sister for taking on the organizing this round. Also for all the angel pillows they have made . . . THANKS!

Spring Kids Clothing Week Challenge

Okay, I started out strong . . . the first four days I was able to make something! My free time doesn't seem to happen anymore around here until at least 8 pm and each day it got later. The fourth night I started my project at 10:30 and finished around 1 am. I was just too tired by Friday to keep going and I figured I got four things done!

Meg on her blog, Elsie Marley, started a challenge last spring. Spend one hour each day for a week and see what you could get accomplished sewing clothes for kids. Now the group is over 400 members strong with lots of kids outfits under our collective belts. The flickr group is a great place to go for inspiration if you have any kids sewing to do.

This year I decided to play late Sunday night, so I didn't have the luxury of thinking through the projects, getting the patterns and fabric ready, etc. I just decided to wing it. Also I concentrated on clothes for Ellie only. Let's face it, the boy stuff I made last year was kind of ugly and they didn't wear the items much, where Ellie wore her skirts and dresses so much they are really worn out. Girls stuff is also a lot more fun to sew. I know my two boys feel a bit left out, but I pulled out a ton of old dino shirts of Max's for Sam and he was thrilled and Max got a couple new Under Armour shorts and tops and he thinks he is the stud of all 8 year old boys. So it is all good.

Day One - Started after 10 pm, so went with the Simple Skirt in Sherbet Pips for Moda! Love Aneela's line for both quilts and kids clothes! Used a great tutorial, www.dana-made-it.com/2008/07/tutorial-simple-skirt.html

Day 2 - Still needs elastic in the sleeves and the neck elastic secured, but needed to wait until she woke up to measure and try on. Sorry for the bad photo, this one is still not done and I have forgotten the pattern I used. Will post about it later. Looks cuter than the photo!

Day 3 - Used Scraps from making her big girl bed quilt to make this fun sun dress.

Used this pattern, www.etsy.com/listing/61524690/carol-jane-dresses.

Day 4 -

Pattern from Whole Grain Baby, Little Mod dress. Used a fun Kokka Cotton Canvas print. The heavyweight of the main fabric, adds to the look of the dress I think. The pattern recommended a home dec weight. Love how this one came out, but a bit hard to attach the yoke to the dress.

As I write this post, I am thinking I might attempt either an Ice Cream Social Shirt from Oliver & S or perhaps a quick shirred sundress. We will see! Either way it has been a great week and Ellie has some new outfits to show for it!