Cutting it Close {April Goals Reached}

I made it! I was getting nervous, but I finished them a the last moment :) 

My goal was to finish two of these "Monikered Baby Bags," but I actually finished three of them! 

No tutorial yet, but maybe once my list of need-to-sew quiets down, I'll take the time to take pictures along the way. Don't worry, I have plenty of friends having babies in the near future, so you know I'll have plenty of chances to finally write down the guidelines for this fun, personalized bag!

Linking up to ALYOF

April Goal Setting Post

(Link 4 in the goals linky party)

This bag actually isn't for a baby. The recipient was recently upgraded to big brother (his sister's bag is below), and I didn't make him a bag when he was born... it was time that he received one! It should be a great church activity bag for the almost-3-year-old. I hope he enjoys this bag that is all his own!

 Most of this fabric was from a Fabricworm giveaway win a few years ago (I can't remember the name, but I believe they recently reprinted it). I was happy to have a good use for it finally! The rest of the fat quarters have been finally cut up into charms. They have been great additions to my I-spy quilts :)

 

This little man was born earlier this year (remember his quilt that I made and blogged about here?). His mom was a teammate of mine in college, so I chose to use good ol' blue and yellow (go Jackrabbits!).

 

These fabrics were all from my mom's baby bag fabric stash. 

I'll finally get to meet the little fellow at the end of May, so I'll give this gift to him then.

 

 Here is the first girl's bag that I've made by myself and blogged about. The only change from a boy's bag is that the band around the name panel is a ruffle instead of just a simple fold. Some of this fabric is from an older Lizzy House fabric line. I chose brown accent fabrics from my stash that were probably from the JoAnn remnant bin :)

 I'll get hers and her brother's bags in the mail soon. 

She was born in March, so it's about time I get a gift to them!

 

In non-sewing news... the boys started planting! They were able to plant all last week, and they're almost done with corn. 

I'll be excited with the green plants start popping up. The brown fields just aren't very pretty ;)

A New Nephew's Quilt

Praises!! I have a new, healthy, little nephew!

Evelyn is looking forward to many-a play dates with her cousin :)

Before the little one arrived, I made this baby quilt and presented it to my brother and sister-in-law. I had a few charm packs of Riley Blake polka dots - both the small and the medium - plus some medium dots yardage for the border and binding. I added some gingham from my stash for a fun circle and square combo :)

The backing is something I purchased from Instagram (#thegreatfabricdestash). It's Boys Will Be Boys by David Walker. It's the perfect, sporty backing!! The illustrations actually remind me of the stick figures my brother would draw when we were little. I quilted this diagonally for a quick and easy finish. I do so love how it turned out. I look forward to more gingham and polka dot combinations in the future :)

Evelyn's Birthday Celebrations

When Evelyn's birthday came around, we had several small celebrations. I prefer keeping birthdays low-key, so these little get-togethers were fitting for her first birthday.

 

On Saturday we went out to eat with my family and then had cake at my brother's house.

Sunday was one of our nice South Dakota Spring days...

 Spring here is unpredictable, so we need to enjoy the nice ones as they come. To do so, we took a nice walk around Dan's grandparents' neighborhood.

Evelyn's great-grandpa (Dan's grandpa) has a birthday a few days before her, so we had fun celebrating both of their birthdays together.

 Evelyn still is learning how to "blow" out candles... we'll work on it some more ;)

 

On her actual birthday, she opened a few more presents at breakfast in her birthday chair (just a balloon tied to her high chair). Her favorite gift by far was her little red wagon! She has just loves that thing... she loves being outdoors!

We'll leave you with a cake picture... because what kind of birthday post would this be without a cake picture?? :)

My First I-Spy Quilt

I finished another quilt that I've been thinking about for awhile!

I've always loved the idea of I-spy quilts for toddlers and kids. When I finally went through my scraps and organized them by cutting them into specific sizes, I knew that I could start sewing a few I-Spy quilts up. I used my usual "pattern;" a 6x8 layout of 5" charms, 4" border and 2.5" binding.

I love how it turned out! Some of the charms have objects, others are color specific to help with color recognition and some are geometric to help with identifying stripes, circles, squares, etc.

This quilt is destined for my parents' lake cabin. Evelyn already enjoys sitting on it. As soon as I lay it out on the ground, she hurriedly crawls/walks over and sits right in the middle. She seems to enjoy the back more now. I used an alphabet panel with a Mary Engelbreit beach fabric as a border on the back. Both were purchased on Instagram (#thegreatfabricdestash) for this specific purpose :) I bought the front border special as well (also Instagram). It is perfect for an I-Spy quilt as it has wagons, houses, bikes, and dogs on it. Since finishing this quilt, I used the rest of the fabric on another baby I-Spy quilt for an upcoming baby shower. I'll be sure to show it after the shower!

Evelyn will enjoy sharing it with her cousins! I cannot wait for summer days at the lake cabin! 

Until then, we'll just keep checking the cattle. I am not jealous of this very pregnant cow!!!

Evelyn Update {Picture Overload}

Just a picture update of Evelyn's last month.... Don't worry, now that Evelyn has reached the one year milestone, these picture updates will come a lot less frequently :)

 

Spending some time with my parents, including toy time with Grandpa and piano lessons with Grandma.

 

We took Great-Grandpa out for a late Christmas gift meal. Evelyn got to spend some time with her cousins, plus she had her first experience on a mechanical ride... one of those kiddie carousels. She seemed to enjoy it.

She loves, loves, loves being outside. We check the cows at least once a day! She will dig through piles of clothes, digging up either a hat or a jacket, and then she will lift it up to me as if to say, "put this on me, Mom, so we can go OUTSIDE!!!"

 More evidence of Evelyn's love of outdoors. There is a door in the kitchen where she will eat snacks and look outside. Usually there is a kitty out there to look at! We have video of her first time "driving" the tractor. She even reached for the shifter and was turning the wheel :)

More calves and more cousins...

The big girl got a new big-girl carseat... in that carseat she has started playing with her feet more than she ever has before. She loves books - even if it's mainly just pulling them off the shelves and flipping through them quick, quick, quickly. Climbing! She has started to take after her dad and enjoys climbing! Her early birthday present was a volleyball and play ball. We have enjoyed chasing after the ball together :)

Snack time! Yogurt and apples... and cheese and baby puffs... yum, yum, yum.

At my parents' place, Evelyn made a new friend... my American Girl Kirsten doll. It was the most I have ever seen her interact with a doll in awhile. She was petting her hair and smiling :) She is so proud of herself when she climbs into the rocking chair. It's one of her favorite places to sit. Dan's parents were gone for several weeks on vacation, so I introduced Evelyn to crayons. She mainly just dropped them on the paper, which made specks. She did make a few sweeping motions, too. We'll keep practicing :)

Evelyn's first tractor wheel picture! There she is playing with the barn that I grew up with. And finally, she was helping Daddy put together a bike rack.


Memories enjoyed. Memories preserved.

Happy Easter!

I hope you all have a lovely Easter Sunday!

May your day be full of sunshine, flowers and smiles. 

And full of praises to our risen Lord!

Two Dresses For Ev

The Cottage Mama recently re-released her free pattern called The Party Dress. I've had my eye on this dress for awhile now, and I finally took the time to sew up two dresses for Evelyn! All of the fabric came from my stash - actually most of it came from Dan's grandma's stash that I came to acquire this past year.

The pattern is easy to follow and the finished dresses look so nice! I had fun picking out the buttons and ribbons - I figure the blue/red dress will be perfect for Memorial Day and 4th of July and the purple will be great for Easter! Both of them will probably show up at a few weddings this summer, too :)

I'll be sure post pictures of Evelyn wearing these eventually!

Evelyn ~ 12 Months

Evelyn recently turned ONE! 

It's been a whirlwind of a year, but it's been a wonderful year as well :)

• She is recently walking more than crawling, although she's still unsteady when wearing shoes outside and on uneven ground. She gets better every day!
• She loves to eat. Cheese is a definite favorite. 
• Naptimes are easier to come by - we read a story, we sing a song and we set her in the crib. Sometimes she falls asleep quickly. Sometimes she whines for an hour (if I leave the room, she screams). It's always an adventure.
• She likes to climb. The rocking chair in the above picture is one of her favorite things to climb on.
• She babbles but no specific words. 
• She hums while eating. It's quite entertaining :)
• Cloth diapers when we're home during the day. Size 5 disposables at night and while we're out and about.
• She wants to be outside all the time - she will dig through a pile until she finds her hat or jacket and hand it to me, knowing that's what she wears outside.
• She likes to mimic us when we nod or shake our head.
• Putting objects inside other things (bucket, tub, baskets) is a favorite past time. I'm just waiting for the moment I walk in and there is something in the toilet... I've already stopped her from putting an entire roll of toilet paper in one!
• Her hair is getting longer... curls in the back. I can easily clip bows in her hair, but I haven't yet tried a ponytail/pigtails.

She is our little sunshine - her smile lights up the room!

Evelyn's First Skipper Top

Ever since I had leftover fabric after making Evelyn her Comfy Christmas Dress, I couldn't wait to sew it into a Skipper Top (pattern by Sew Much Ado). 

Let me just say, I LOVED how quick and easy this pattern was! I was able to sew it in a few hours one night after Evelyn had gone to bed (I already had the pieces cut out). I'm sure it would have gone quicker, but I'm still getting used to sewing on knits and setting up my double needle.

I had her wear it the next day!!

I already have another top cut out, along with a matching one for her older cousin. 

I was busy sewing them during nap time one day last week and broke my double needle, so those are one the back burner until I have time to buy another needle. 

As you can tell, Spring has arrived! Admittedly, this week we're suppose to be a bit on the cooler side, but last week was simply amazing! 

And yes, the baby calves are starting to arrive! We even have a set of twins. I look forward to taking more pictures of these little cuties soon :)

ALYOF ~ April Goal

April Goal: Finish two Monikered Baby Bags

I've got these two bags started - Mom did the appliqué - and now, I just need to sew them all together.

Not a part of my goal, but I have a third bag that I have a few pieces cut out for that I would like to finish soon as well. A cousin just had a little girl! Babies are everywhere :)