My first successful sewing project!

This past week I was blessed with five whole days to spend away at my dear friends home along with my dear daughter. My sweet husband held down the fort with the boys while Squirt and I drove 4 1/2 hours south to stay with friends. She had a great week of worship dance camp and playing with friends; while I was blessed by great fellowship, encouragement, prayer, sharing, and sewing lessons! I learned so much this week and my friend V is a great teacher and encourager!! Here is one of the two items of clothing I completed this past week. And as she encouraged me to say "I am well pleased!"

I learned that next to a sewing machine and good scissors the iron is a seamstress' best friend. I learned about finishing seams, ironing everything (including the pattern), pinning fabric, copying patterns, reading patterns, gathering, topstitching, darts, and so much more. I am so thankful for all that I learned and so excited to do more in the future. I also made a cute pair of flat front shorts for Squirt, but no picture yet. 

I was given The Complete Photo Guide to Sewing. It is incredibly helpful for this visual learner. This is a great resource but I am learning to use it more as an encyclopedia to reference, otherwise you can get overwhelmed by the information in it. There is so much terminology in sewing that I  felt incredibly daunting at first. But you have to learn everything one step at a time. So I am eating my elephant one bite at a time and starting to really enjoy it, thanks to many sweet friends and much encouragement.

I am enjoying my summer projects and a little break from homeschooling. We will start again before I know it!

Happy Summer!!!

Blessings

This songs speaks volumes

Adventures in Sewing

For one of my summer projects I have decided to embark on learning to sew. I spent Memorial Day weekend with our sweet friends in another city and had fun hanging at the local Hancock's Fabric buying patterns, material and scissors. Got home and pulled out the 1 Hour Easy Pattern from McCall's. Now mind you, I had bought 8 yards of 3 Stooges fabric for 50 cents a yard to practice on. Of course, it is appropriate for my first project; because when I was done with the so-called shorts this is what they looked like!

Anyone else the see the problems? They were wide enough to fit me, and long enough for me, but the rear could have fit my 4 1/2 year old, and the pattern that I was following was suppose to be for a children's 7-8!! 

I felt ready to thrown in the towel and say I was not meant to sew. I felt dejected and overwhelmed. But I picked up the phone and called my sweet friend for advice. She wisely told me to look at a pair of my favorite shorts, turn them inside out and look at how they fit together. So I did that and still felt dumbfounded! Then I prayed. I said, "God show me!" And all of a sudden I could see what I had done wrong. I had put the pieces together upside down. I had sown the legs together for the body and the body for the legs. 

My point in all this is, God cares about even the little details of our lives and wants to be involved. All we have to do is ask. The Bible says that all wisdom comes from Him. So if I need wisdom, then it makes sense to ask the one who has ALL Wisdom.

So here is the finished project. And guess what? It looks like a pair of shorts should.

Remember

I am remembering our sweet Chloe Marie our first child and first daughter born September 7 many years ago. She was born with ARPKD and lived for an hour. The videos below are 3 parts of a video that shares Todd & Angie Smith's story of their Audrey Caroline born and died April 7, 2008. She was born with the same kidney disease that our daughter was born with.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

In all things God will orchestrate so He will get the glory!

Dancing With Joy

Our daughter has been dancing since she could move her little feet. This is her fifth year of ballet and each year is a new experience for her and for us. Here is our dear sweet girl in her most recent ballet production- Snow White. She was a Squirrel. We are very proud of you Squirt!!

PHFHG Timeline

I've been meaning to post these pictures but I keep having problems with glare. I have a very sunny school room; and we covered each timeline piece with contact paper (for future preservation) and then taped it to the wall. But because of the sunny room and the contact paper, I have found it almost impossible to get a picture I was fully happy with. But better than no documentation, I guess not so great pictures will suffice. Squirt has done a wonderful job on her timeline pieces. Here is  her work thus far

Creation to Ancient Egypt

Hammurabi to Trojan War

King David to Assyria Conquers Israel

Babylon Conquers Judah to Alexander the Great

And a few close ups of her most recent timeline pieces (not pictured on the wall above yet)

Hannibal Crosses the Alps & Julius Caesar

Birth of Christ & Caesar Augustus

Death and Resurrection of Christ