finishing up some WIP's

Yesterday Micah asked if we could please work on his quilt- which really translated into, "Mom, will you please finish my quilt."  He's waited so patiently and I have been saying "no" to so many things lately with all the last minute tutor prep that I had to oblige...

And while I was at it, I figured I might as well sew Regan's backing on since that was all she had left to do.

Two WIP's off my shelves and into someone else's space, yay!

sewing class show and tell

The girls finished up two new projects in sewing class this week.  Regan missed a week of class while she was at camp, so she still needs to attach the backing to her quilt, I'll post pictures as soon as she finishes it :)

The hand sewing class learned the blanket stitch this week and finished up felt pin cushions.

One more project and then we are done for the summer!

wednesday

My youngest girls are finishing up their hand embroidered T shirts this week in sewing class...

Midway through class I spotted this little turtle in the driveway- we of course had to take a break to go see him.

After class the girls built a Lego tower that touched the ceiling... I am almost skinny enough to hide behind it ;)

And while I made some business calls this afternoon Emmaline fell asleep in the highchair- so sweet!

free fox softie pattern

My hand sewing class started working on these felt foxes today and I thought I would share my pattern with you all.   It is hard to tell in the photo, but this little fox stands about 7" tall and 6" wide.  If you cut carefully you can get the whole body out if one piece of craft felt (which is what the girls are using, I used wool felt for mine - bought it here). 

Fox Softie Pattern by Amy Wirtz

As always, if you stitch up your own version of my pattern I would LOVE to see it! Please share pictures in my Flickr group! Feel free to ask any questions about any of my patterns and I will answer them in the comments. Happy stitching :)

sewing class

The girls have been sewing away over here every Tuesday afternoon.  Here are the last two projects they completed.

I also started a hand sewing class with these 3 cuties :)  Today was their first day and Lulu was so excited about her project she took it to bed with her to work on a bit more before going to sleep.

what we've been up to

I so want to be posting here more often, but just have not been able to make it happen.  Anyway, here is a peek at just a bit of what has been going on around here since my last post...

I had a birthday (I am 37, for anyone who's dying to know). We also celebrated 13 years wedded bliss (no pictures, sorry).  I am thankful for everyday with my wonderful husband!

I've stated teaching sewing again.  This was the girls second project, I did not photograph the first, but they made these into pin cushions.  They are working on tote bags now and after that they will do aprons.

(funny thing about this picture is Regan is actually a whole year older than her friend- my friends all towered over me when I was her age too, actually, at 5'3" many of my friends still tower over me today :)

Emmaline is rolling all over the house- this is where I found her (half way under the couch) after leaving the room for just a couple minutes the other day.

She also cut her first tooth on February 22.

I did find a few moments to sew a couple baby things for a friend (and some to put in the shop as soon as the sun decides to shine so I can photograph them!)

I spent the better part of 3 hours cutting out a pile of aprons last night- now if I can just find some time to sew them I can add them to the shop too.

I'll end with this bittersweet photo of Emmaline, after her first night of sleeping in the crib in Addie's room.  You have no idea how hard it was for me to put her to bed across the hall from me instead of at the foot of my bed, but she is just too big to sleep in the cradle anymore :(

aprons

I seem to have gone a bit apron happy this week.  I had a few yard of fabric that were just calling out to be made into aprons... so what's a girl to?

This one is the only adult apron (so far), and although it turned out cute, sewing all that bias tape around the edges was not fun, so I don't think there will be another one like this.  I do have another yard of that fabric, only in yellow, but I will do a different apron design next time.

I did make a coordinating kids apron :)

And two more kids aprons in this cute fabric.

Next I am going to dig into this fun pile of fabric that came in the mail earlier this week!

sewing class

We finished our last sewing class today and I am so proud of the girls, they did such a great job and I will miss having them all here each week!

Our first class was a 4 week hand sewing class where we made a softie owl and embroidered a t-shirt. I wish I had take pictures of all their projects, but I just plain forget! Anyway, here are my example projects so you get the idea.

We took the month of July off and came back in August for 4 weeks of machine sewing. I had a total of 5 students ages 7-11. We started off with machine basics (how to thread the machine, fill your bobbin, straight stitch, back stitch etc.) then we moved on to our first project, a tote bag. In this project they learned how to make a french seam, how to sew and turn handles, and how to make boxed corners.

I made the initial appliques before hand and stitched them onto the fabric for them to go back and hand embroider (around the circle) later.

And our final project was a pillow cover. I pre-cut the squares because that would have taken a whole other 4 weeks I think with 5 girls trying to choose and cut their own but they sewed them all together today and did such an awesome job!
I think they are all very proud of all their hard work- I know I am!

free time

The kids are all going to VBS this week (except Addie) and I am spending my "free time" prepping for my next sewing class. This class will be a 4 week, beginning machine sewing class. Here is a little peak into our first project.
I've also finished sewing all my rows for my quilt- now to press and sew them all together. I still have to pick out my backing fabric and I want to have my machine serviced before I quilt it. I was hoping to finish before the summer ends, but now I'm not sure that will happen.
What are you working on this week?