saturday sewing frenzy

i decided to make up for lost time today. we had a really great week in homeschool and my husband has been out of town on a pleasurable business trip for 3 nights now, so i felt justified turning the kids loose all day, letting them eat leftover pizza from last night and watching movies to their hearts' content (we don't have tv and only fri/sat are movie days). the mr. will be home any time now and i really wanted to get some projects out of the way and off my conscience.

first up, i photographed 4sq #7 before delivering it:

while i love the fabrics i used on this blanket, i'm not completely happy with the turnout because matching the flannel backing to this one was a true challenge. i would have preferred either the bright pink or that lighter green color from the background of the lower right corner, but of course could find neither. i settled on basic white, but when i held up the white to the finished top, i realized those nice dark colors were showing right through and it just didn't work. i was down to red. it's not very feminine/baby feeling to me, but it matched pretty closely. then i had to pick a border stitching color - another dilemma. i really try not to overthink this stuff, but i do have some standards. first i selected a dark green (too christmasy) and a brown (too dull & definitely not fem/baby with the red). so even though it doesn't tie in with the ladybug panel very well, i got a bright pink close to the color in some of the flowers and on the butterflies. whew! i'm so glad this one is done. to top off everything else, when i photographed it in my courtyard, i neglected to reset the white balance, which i'd recently moved to "tungsten", so the color is all off. whatever! like i said, i'm so glad this one is done. bye-bye!

(unusual photo of my baby bump hanging over the ironing board as i press, with littlest sister splishing

and splashing in the background)

my older four children all had an activity of some sort or another this morning, so it was just the little girls and me until lunch time. i got my morning obligations out of the way and tackled my stack of projects. finishing the 4sq blankets that i had on hand planned for all my friends was my goal. i got the back put on the boy blanky for my daughter's primary teacher then went after the other two girl blankets i've had the fabric for since march or april. one is done, minus the blanket stitch and the other has a completed top now. that was a lot of cutting, squaring, pinning and a fair bit of pressing and sewing, which is always the fastest part.

the 5 yr old wandered in, interested in what i was doing and was given the job of replacing pins as i sewed. she loves that. she was kept quite busy removing and rearranging the pins all she wanted.

it was nice having her along side me while i worked and i believe this is a beginning for her further involvement and interest in sewing to come when she's old enough to do more. i already let her stitch on burlap in an embroidery hoop with floss and a large, dull tapestry needle, as suggested in the creative family by amanda soule of soulemama blog fame. this was just one more way to give her happy memories associated with her mother and sewing. although i must say, if you look at the method she created for inserting the pins, points poking through the top, i am tempted to think maybe she's not so happy with me after all and seeks to do a little damage next time i reach for a pin.

eventually the littlest one wanted to splish and splash while i stashed. while she bathed she called out to me, "look mama! i 'tending i sewin'. i makin' a blanky. sew, sew, sew." she was using cotton swabs to sew through the hole in a foot brush. everyone seemed to want to be sewing or participating in some way today. when she saw me pressing the cute heather bailey fabrics for one of the blankets, she excitedly cried, "oh, i like that one! i like the flowers - can i have it please, pretty please?" i wish, darlin', but it's for another baby that's been waiting about 3 months now. seeing as i have plenty of spare heather in my stash and this little gal likes and wants every bit of fabric she sees me working with, i'm not too concerned she'll hold it against me or even notice when this blanket finds it's new home.

up next, i have to get the back on 4sq #10, then blanket stitch all 3 of them asap. happy sewing or saturday-ing otherwise to y'all!