More Springtime Sights

Gold Finches Flying

Red Tulips Blooming

Regular Rocks Sitting

Green Ferns Unfurling

More Birds Feeding 

(Rose Breasted Grosbeak & Oriole)

Cloth Diapers Hanging :)

More Matching Cousins

Once upon a time, I was in 4-H and sewing 2-3 outfits a summer to enter in Fashion Revue. 

For the non-4-H-ers out there, Fashion Revue is a "Youth-in-Action" project. Participants sew an outfit, model it for a judge and answer questions about the construction and care of their outfits. A few weeks later, during the county fair (or in my county's case, 4-H Achievement Days), there is a public event where participants put on a fashion show and model their outfits while the emcee reads a script about the outfit, accessories and a few tidbits about the participant. 

Here I am during the public Fashion Revue modeling an outfit... I believe this was the summer after finishing 6th or 7th grade. One of these days I'll dig out my old 4-H book which has all of my outfits (and records about all my other 4-H activities, too) and I'll post more outfits as part of a Throwback Thursday series... someday :)

This past winter, Mom and I cleaned out her fabric collection, and I found plenty of this JoAnn's Tie-Dye knit fabric leftover from the top I made a decade ago. I had just enough to make matching Skipper Tops (pattern by Sew Much Ado) for Evelyn and her cousin! 

Since the knit fabric was a little older, it didn't stretch as well. I should have went up a size for Evelyn's top... she was only able to wear it a few times before I gave up fighting her to get it over her head. Thankfully, I guessed big for Anna's size and her's fits perfectly! Evelyn's top will just have to go in the box with her other outgrown clothes and wait there for the next baby girl in the extended family :) Besides, someday Evelyn will fit into Anna's! Haha, on that note, she will probably fit into my top someday, too... I'm pretty sure I still have every outfit I ever made!

Wedding Present Complete {ALYOF}

For my May goal, I finished binding this Christmas tree skirt. 

It is already wrapped up and ready for this Wednesday's wedding. 

(ALYOF Goal Post... Goal Linky #72 )

While talking weddings, I happily finished binding another tree skirt for the wedding we'll attend on Saturday (yup, two weddings in two states in one week! I'm considering this wedding week to be my vacation, ha!). However, I forgot to take a picture of the final product... I was too excited to have it finished that I hurriedly wrapped it before remembering to take a picture.

Anyways, if you want more details of the other finished skirt, here's the quilt top (the non-scrappy one)... and I decided on a red fabric/white pin dot fabric for the binding... and I'll be sure to post another tree skirt (July wedding) with similar quilting done to it. Remember, I sent off those two tree skirts to be quilted by a local long-armer because I was afraid with my long to-do list of baby quilts and other gifts that I wouldn't have time to quilt them myself!


Anyways, so there's the update... I'm off to help decorate! Yay for Weddings!

Quilted Beach Bag

I recently won a giveaway from Amy at Diary of a Quilter. The giveaway was a saturated rainbow fat quarter bundle sponsored from Canton Village Quilt Works (the giveaway post is here if you want more details about the fabric in the bundle). The colors are definitely not something I work with on a regular basis, but it was fun to get out of my comfort zone! 

A Big THANK YOU to Amy and Jackie from CV Quilt Works for the bundle!!

I decided that we needed a new lake bag to carry swimsuits and towels this summer! I used the tutorial found here and only changed the pattern a little - I decided not to gather the strip in the middle of the bag. Since I was using fat quarters, I would have had to connect a few strips in order to have it long enough the gather. I also had to improvise with where I put the batting and the interfacing based on what I had on hand.

I do love how it came out! Mom was pretty jealous when I showed her. I may have to make another one ;) I have plenty of charms to make it, but I may have to supplement from my stash in order to have bigger pieces for the lining, straps and accent fabrics on the bottom of the bag.

Oh, look, there's Farmer Dan feeding the fat cattle during my photo shoot :) 

It is nice to have sunlight still after I put Evelyn down for the night!

A Covey of Quail Shirts

A group of quails will be getting together this summer, and now they'll have shirts to match the family name :)

I cannot wait to show you pictures of the cousins together... but we'll have to wait until June!

 

I had so much fun finding the clipart of a quail, making the freezer paper stencils and painting with fabric paint (there are lots of great tutorials out there; in the past I used this tutorial to learn the process). I first learned this technique so I could make Evelyn some fun onesies... you can see a few of those here.

Seriously, this is such a quick and easy project... I love how they turned out! Evelyn has already worn hers a few times :)

Evelyn in her Purple Party Dress

 Finally! I nice day to take a few pictures of Evelyn wearing one of the party dresses I made her this Spring! She wore it on Easter, but it was too chilly to take pictures without a sweater.

So, last Saturday we went to a lady's tea at Dan's grandmother's church. Once we returned home, I quick brought her outside for a mini photo shoot.

The dress is still a little big on her, which I'm grateful for... that means she should be able to wear it all summer! Here is the informational post about the pattern and fabric.

Thanks for stopping  by!

Glimpses of a South Dakota Spring

 Butterflies are starting to show up! I saw this one and a yellow tiger swallowtail butterfly on the same day. Little Miss Swallowtail wouldn't sit long enough for a picture, but this Mr. Red Admiral decided to pose for a photo shoot while hanging out on the garage wall.

 The pink flowering crab apple tree is almost in full bloom. I always love the smell of crab apple blossoms!

\

More crab apple blossoms, a few apple flowers and one fern peony... the fern peonies are almost blooming! They are one of my most favorite flowers :)

 Not to overwhelm you with springtime flowers... here's another common site of Spring... farming equipment! We are completely done with planting corn, so now it's the soybean's turn! Above you can see a sprayer getting ready to go spread some chemical for weed control on a first year no-till field.

For A Baby Shower {Baby I-Spy Quilt}

Other than making a few burp cloths, I'm ready for a baby shower... A good friend who lives several states away is coming home for a baby shower, and I cannot wait to see her in all her baby-bump glory! 

She is excepting a boy in July, so I made a boy-themed I-Spy quilt :)

Really, it's only boy-themed because I didn't add any tiaras or fairies, but I still added one or two pink and purple squares... even a boy needs to know what color pink is!

During the photo shoot, Evelyn was just walking, walking everywhere. She ended up going halfway down this hill before falling :)

 The backing is pieced... some Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric with some rainbow stripes from Dan's grandma's stash. The binding is a different rainbow stripe that also came from Dan's grandma. I already have a Very Hungry Caterpillar book to add to the gift bag, too.

 After I finished taking pictures, we went to check on the yearlings. They were huuuungry!!!

Of course, when we were checking on the cattle, Little E decided to go out in the unplanted corn field by herself. Sigh. We need to teach her direction soon, or else she's going to be one of those kids who walks into a fully-grown field and gets lost... She just loves to explore!

May Goal {ALYOF}

My official ALYOF May goal is to finishing binding this Christmas tree skirt. The binding is already attached and just waiting for me to finish hand-stitching it to the back. 

This will be a gift for a wedding at the end of the month!

The binding roll in the picture is actually for another tree skirt that I need done by the end of May (yup, two weddings at the end of May - one on a Wednesday and the other on the following Saturday!). However, it is not a part of my official goal, since I'm still waiting for the skirt to return from the quilters. I hope she finishes it soon!!! I know, I know, I can always mail the gift afterwards, but it would be so nice to have it ready for the wedding...

 I also have a baby shower gift to prepare (the baby quilt is done... I'll share it soon, but I need to make a few burp rags to go with it!). The shower is the Saturday before the wedding week. Just call me the crazy schedule lady for the month of May!

And... I'll leave you with a quick shot of the Big E :)

Birthday Presents(!)

Yikes, here we are just finishing up celebrating Evelyn's birthday and I'm just now posting about a few of the gifts I received (my birthday was way back in January).

Several of my gifts will be highlighted later, when I have a house and a place for then... but for now, here is a little vintage-y, fabric-y and foreign-y goodness :)

My sister-in-law went antiquing to find me this first gift! It's a FireKing jadeite mixing bowl and it's been on my  list forever. I've seen them frequently, but I've just never allowed myself to buy one.

Now I have one! It was so thoughtful of her to take the time to search and buy it for me. I cannot wait to use it!!

Sticking with the Jadeite theme... these were purchased on Ebay as a gift from Dan. He came up with the idea (I'm always drooling over Fire-King Jadeite), and I was more than happy to "help him" find my birthday present :)

I was able to buy four of them, and adding them to the one we already own, we now have 5! According to my mom, they are too nice to use for everyday. Hmm... I'm more of the mindset that they are too fun not to use for everyday!

These came all the way from New Zealand! Dan's sister and her husband are living down there for two years. The hat will be perfect for going rummage saling and just hanging out at the lake, and I'm sure the slipper-socks will be used a lot next winter!

Admittedly, these two pieces of lovliness weren't for my birthday. My inlaws recently returned from visiting the afor mention "foreigners" and this fabric (along with the beautiful coasters below), were gifts from the travelers.

I definitely have to come up with the perfect project for them... They are way to pretty not to use them!

Here are the pretty coasters! My sister-in-law and I decided to do halvsies... we split our sets so we could have two designs instead of just one. They make me smile :)

Like I said, there are more fun pieces I hope to show you in the future. All I can say is that I am surrounded by amazing family! They are a blessing in my life :) Thank you to all!