Summer Sewing... or is it canning?

My daughters finished these over the weekend....

Canning
This the season... and it has occupied much of this week... Blackberries, greengage plums and transparent apples.  The transparent apples are so wonderful for baking and applesauce.  And a tasty no-sugar added juice too!  The problem with transparent apples -- they have NO shelf life.  They are a soft and immediate use apple... so they are ripe - now they are applesauce!

The past few days have included multiple batches of apple sauce, apple juice, greengage plum jam, blackberry juice, blackberry jam, and chocolate blackberry jam.  

Oh but there are more apples... these are only the large apples from the other trees.  I don't know the varieties of these apples... but they have a longer "shelf" life... so they are headed home from the beach!  And I'll deal with them in September...  Probably more apple sauce and sliced frozen apples...

Garment Sewing

Here is the Burda Style Braided Neck Tank I made myself. Printed fabric is a poly-Lycra blend, solid fabric is a rayon-Lycra.  Instead of doing a full facing front & back, I cropped the pieces and made a shelf bra.  

And my sons second pair of pants. These still need the waist band sewn, and hemmed...

I really liked how these went together, but didn`t quite understand the instructions for the back pocket so ended up just  going on instinct! 

Quilting

I got 4 of my dresden plate blocks basted!  The fifth has been cut into an octagon and I`m adding the extra 1 inch strips to the cut edges.

My daughter commented the blue sheet I`ve been using all summer as a design wall is empty...  I am packing my sewing area... to move back to town...

Getting things done!

My 5yo!  I drew the lines on so she could follow them.

She did quite well as long as she was reminded to stay on the line.

I spent most of last week wondering if I'd get anywhere with my sewing... The kids were sewing!  Even my 5yo showed interest and started sewing with her sister.  They each made small purses.  It was great that they were taking an interest and getting things made... they made gifts and items for themselves... They have one get well gift, a birthday gift and a Christmas gift finished.   As well, they have started another Christmas gift, and the baby quilt is nearly done -- Grace's quilt is being hand-stitched so it is now in my hands.

Sewing flowers - with help from the cat

A few of the projects they have been working on haven't been photographed.  The girls also started a macrame plant hanger, and I think we'll finish that tomorrow!  As well as their completed purses to hold their mice.  And they were sewing flowers with buttons...

Mug Rug - Front

Mug Rug - Back

Disappearing 9 Patch Bag with Zipper Open

Disappearing 9 Patch Bag with Zipper Closed

Hunting through the button jar is fun!

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Quilting

• I have started hand-sewing the binding on for Grace's Quilt.
• No further progress on any projects.

Garment Sewing
So how are my projects coming along? I have been working on back to school clothing for the kids.  I have one outfit completed for each child, and another outfit started for each.

I even used the fabric from Finland that my husband brought me home last year!  

Completed Items

• Tank top for me (Braided Neck Tank at BurdaStyle)
• Tunic for each girl 
• Ottobre 4/11 #28 -- Orange/Yellow/Pink Cotton-lycra knit from Finland
• Ottobre 3/2008 #12 -- Pink/Purple Cotton-Lycra knit from Finland
• Leggings for each girl 
• Ottobre 4/11 #32 - Pink Knit -- this fabric is quite light weight and has pretty poor recovery...  but it was in my stash... and will do as a quick pair of leggings as she wore holes through most of her leggings this spring!
• Ottobre 1/10 #18) - Purple Knit -- this fabric is a really nice weight, but possibly too heavy for the pleating detail on the legs.  
• Pants for my son (Ottobre 1/11 #39) - Green Cord
• Tshirt for my son (Ottobre 1/10 #24B) -- Blue/Green/Yellow stripe Cotton-Lycra from Finland.

Started

•  Second pair of pants for my son (Ottobre 1/11 #39) - Blue Twill

Cut Out

• Blouse for my youngest (Ottobre 1/20 #11)
• Pinafore for my youngest (Ottobre 4/11 #14)
  

Planned items

• Skirt for my older daughter (Ottobre 1/11 #31)

Canning
It is summer here... and the fruit are starting to ripen... we have a number of apple and plum trees trees as well as numerous blackberry bushes!  Sunday we made 8 litres of apple sauce, 1 litre of apple juice and 4 - 250mL jars of greengage plum jam.  Today we were working on Chocolate Blackberry Jam!

Is it Wednesday already?

Getting sewing time is difficult... But I am working with my kids on sewing.  My son has become quite proficient, now that he has a few ideas...  And soon, maybe, he'll be working on his own.

My daughter has continued to sew mice this week and now has a family of 10! Some of them have clothes. Her stitches are visible, and she's not changing thread colours... but I'm not arguing as she's working independently and helping her 5yo sister!

The kids start school in two weeks... So I have lots of sewing to complete by then... as they each want back to school clothing.....

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Quilting Projects
Completed

• Mug Rug for my Step-father
  My son did this project pretty much on his own. I provided instructions on technique and helped with the binding, but he did all the sewing. The label is on, but I don't have a pen to write on it...

Progress

• Dresden Quilt
  All circles have been set and borders added.  I'm hoping I have enough batting to get them basted, but won't be quilting them until after school starts as my thread is at home.
• Christmas/Winter Quilt
  Quilt top is assembled, but need some unwashed white fabric for borders!  Need to go to the store...
• Grace's Quilt
  The kid's quilted it. I have squared it up and it is ready for binding!

No Progress

• Mariner's Quilt
• St Patrick's Day Quilt
  

Garment Sewing
Started items

• Tank top for me (Braided Neck Tank at BurdaStyle)
• Tunic for each girl (Ottobre 4/11 #28, Ottobre 3/2008 #12)
• Leggings for each girl (Ottobre 4/11 #32, Ottobre 1/10 #18)
• Pants for my son (Ottobre 1/11 #39)

Cut Out 

• Blouse for my youngest (Ottobre 1/20 #11)
• Pinafore for my youngest (Ottobre 4/11 #14)
  

Planned items

• Tshirt for my son (Ottobre 1/10 #24B)
• Second pair of pants for my son (Ottobre 1/11 #39)
• Skirt for my older daughter (Ottobre 1/11 #31)

And there are more items that they'd love to have, but this is what I'm committing to for the next two weeks... I really should also add two white blouses - one for each girl.  They'll probably be simple white peasant blouses.

I'm also debating whether to make myself a skirt, or a second top...

And my girls were sewing

These little mice are made by my 8yo... without a pattern.  All of them now have ears and a tail, some have clothes, but most need eyes.  We don't have beads small enough for her liking!

The story of these mice.... A girl at church has made mice, so my daughter wanted some too... so she asked for some fabric, so I handed her a bag of scraps... and some poly fibre fill... The only other support I've provided is threading some of the needles!

My older daughter started making mice, some small and one no-so-small....  Oh and they even get clothes....

My younger daughter started with mice, and then progressed to a halloween costume...

Design Wall Monday

No sewing progress this weekend....  so my design wall looks the same as it did at the end of Friday.  This upcoming week my focus is Clothes - must get ready for back to school.  Countdown is on: 2 weeks to go!

Ssome discussion about what I'm going to do with my lone dresden.  The discussions involved 3 options, as the quilt top is currently 28.5"x 28.5"

• Add a border -- I'm out of the border colour,  so either a darker beige (as in some of the other dresdens) or the dark brown.  And then quilt & bind.  Drawback - its really too big for my table, so could only be used as a wall haning
• Add a few borders to increase the size to 48" square
• Cut the corners off and turn it into an octagon -- then it could be used on my dining room table.

I'm leaning towards the octagon.  It wouldn't be too difficult to finish.  I think if I were to make it a larger quilt, it would become a UFO....

Canning
This is what I've spent my weekend doing... 2 batches of Blackberry Jam, 10L of Blackberry Juice... Added to last weeks Plum Jam (and I think I made 5 batches of it) and Plum Chutney.  And the Plum Vodka I made is great with Sprite, or Orange Juice!

Friday night sewing at the beach....

During the day instead of having prep time, I was making blackberry jam for my Gram.  She is very spoiled - my mom went home with fresh blackberry pie and blackberry jam for her.  She is 95!

After dinner I started sewing while the kids went down to the beach with my mom and her husband... Looking out at the calm waters I couldn't resist the call of the ocean.  So I went out for a kayak!  Then I picked up my husband from the ferry.

Finally at 9pm I sat down to sew...

Winter Quilt
First I worked on my winter whirly gig quilt.  I had laid out the blocks previously and then stitched together to quilt top.  I can't proceed any further on this until I get more unwashed white cotton.

Sewn Together

Dresden Quilts 

Last night I set 4 of the circles into the outer border, squared up the blocks, then added the two borders.


This project was started as part of Lily's Quilts QAL in the spring... but life got in the way and I never finished them. Now I have the blocks ready to add the batting and backing. I will start assembling these blocks, but the quilting thread for these is at home in my sewing room. Because I'm not positive where the thread is, I'll need to wait until I get home to find it.

I need to head back to Lily's Quilts Blog and read the instructions!

Each of these blocks is about 31" square.

The 4 Blocks Ready for the Quilt.  This is a quilt as you go project, so I didn't piece them together

When I was making up the blocks, I forgot one at the cabin... but now all blocks are united and now I have an extra one.

I don't have enough of the background fabric to border it.  I will do a wider light border - probably the ligth blue, and then maybe a pieced border... I haven't decided....

Dresden - this one will be made into a separate quilt.

Grace's Quilt


Grace is still in the hospital and is gaining weight but has some struggles. She is in our continual prayers... The kids are continuing to work on their gift for her. They decided they would do the quilting too! So the progress is slow as Gramma (my mom) came for a 3 day visit. They didn't work on this last night, but are starting to work on it again today now that Gramma has left!

Design Wall Monday

Quilting
Today we got Grace's Quilt top pinned together...  Not much else done...  

And my dresdens are waiting to be sewn into the backgrounds, which are ready sitting on my sewing table.  Time to get busy....

Back to school sewing
The pants for my son need the fly sewn...

Seen around town

This is the quilt in my massage therapists office.  I thought it was quite pretty... The statement on it reads "What is your greatest desire?  Follow it and find peace". 

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, they were all taken on my Blackberry...